Singapore

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.

Singapore private equity firm Tembusu Partners launches $100M sustainable fund with Eco-Business

The fund will take a broad sector approach and focus on the five high opportunity areas it has identified: energy transition, climate action, sustainable cities, and circular economy, sustainable food and agriculture, and inclusion. It has a robust pipeline of quality deals and has already invested in an Indonesian start-up in the financial inclusion space.…

Validus acquires KlearCard’s business payments and expense management platform to bolster its upcoming SME Neobank offering

The acquisition of the KlearCard platform, an established player with a proven product-market fit in the region, will pave the way for Validus to accelerate its build-out of Southeast Asia’s first credit-led SME-focused Neobank, which will provide SMEs with a best-in-class experience through a fully integrated and holistic suite of financial tools and…

Singapore insurer NTUC Income expands Insurance-as-a-Service to Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia via partnerships

These strategic alliances are built on Income's Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS) model that enables the company to bring digital-first insurance business models to partners overseas, enhance their speed-to-market, and equip them with the right capabilities and tools to capture new customer segments and revenue streams

Wavemaker Partners launches climate tech venture builder Wavemaker Impact with $25M target for its first fund

Wavemaker Partners believes that climate change is an existential threat for the region, with three of its largest cities facing the threat of being underwater by 2050. Thus, the founders of Wavemaker Impact believe that entrepreneurs will drive solutions to addressing climate change and aim to launch companies that will reduce 10 percent of global…

Singapore fashion brand Love, Bonito raises $50M in Series C funding to fuel category and international expansion

Proceeds from the fundraise will enable Love, Bonito to bolster efforts in existing omnichannel markets and supercharge international expansion in markets that collectively are experiencing triple digits year-on-year growth. These key markets include Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and the US.

Temasek launches $3.34B investment platform to support businesses with regional or global aspirations

65 Equity Partners seeks to partner with fundamentally sound and well-managed businesses with clear growth strategies over the long term. It will invest across industries with strong structural tailwinds, such as consumer, industrial and business services, logistics, healthcare, and technology, underpinned by committed owners and management teams. 65 Equity…

DaaS provider QoreNext raises $1.5M seed funding backed by Wavemaker Partners to bring data science solution to the market

The seed round will help the QoreNext platform to advance the production of its main modules and to bring its first set of data products to the market, the company said in a statement. Previously, the startup closed an angel investment round from leaders in the insights, payments, and data spaces.

Global streaming platform Viki founders launch TheVentures Singapore, a venture builder for startups across Southeast Asia

TVSG is focused on early-stage, high-growth tech businesses in Southeast Asia. It will seek opportunities in domains including e-commerce, community, FinTech, online to offline, biotech, healthcare, FoodTech, and sustainability.

Emerging Vision to grow further in India & US as online ‘fortune-telling’ services soar amid pandemic

The firm is also expected to rake in revenue of more than $6 million this year as demand for its astrology, tarot card reading services gained popularity.