SEA

Wavemaker Partners has closed its fourth fund at $136 million, making it the largest fund focused on early-stage (Seed/Pre-A) enterprise, deep tech, and sustainability startups in Southeast Asia. Surpassing its $120 million fundraising goal, Wavemaker's Fund 4 is 22 percent bigger than the previous fund ($111 million) that closed in October 2020. Fund 4…

Insider announced Monday a $121 million Series D round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), at a $1.22 billion valuation. Other investors participating in the round include Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, 212, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity, and Endeavor Catalyst. The additional capital will be used to fuel rapid global expansion, enhance the…

Zaapi has raised a $4 million seed investment in the current round of funding. Prominent venture capital investors, including Global Founders Capital (GFC), Flourish Ventures, and Partech, led the investment. Other institutional investors in the round include 1982 Ventures, Kaya Founders, Iterative, XA Network, and Sketchnote Partners/Invertidos.

Grab posted a loss of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter 2011, as its revenue tumbled 44 percent year on year on heavy incentive spending. The revenue drop was due to the company preemptively invested to grow driver supply to support strong recovery in mobility demand. Consumer incentives for mobility and deliveries also increased as Grab invested in its…

BigPay announced Thursday the launch of its fully digital loans as part of the wider suite of financial services offerings. This makes BigPay the first product to have a full digital personal lending product as part of its offering in Malaysia.

Funding Societies has launched Elevate, a virtual card solution for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Singapore. The card is available on a credit line on the FinTech platform’s website and mobile app, and entitles qualified MSMEs to interest free credit for a period of up to 55 days.

France was one of the most significant new markets for Sea, which has been embarking on an aggressive international push last year to drive growth beyond Southeast Asia.

In the interview, Knoben also shared what are the challenges faced by startups or innovators in this post-pandemic environment and Intrepid’s strategies to address these challenges.

Growth stage accelerator ScaleUp Malaysia, in partnership with Quest Ventures, Indelible Ventures, and Mranti signalled the culmination of its third cohort with the unveiling of its selection of top startups. The companies selected by Quest Ventures for co-investment were GuruInnovtif, Open Academy, MadCash, SpareXHub, VireServe, and WaSushi. Indelible…

PropertyGuru Group said Monday its total revenue increased by 22.7 percentto S$100.7 million ($74.36 million) from S$82.1 million ($60.63 million), reflecting rising confidence in the property market .This is also 3.3 percent better than the group’s 2021 forecast of S$97.5 million ($72 million).