Carsome appoints Digbijoy Shukla as Head of M&A, Ecosystem Strategy

Malaysia-based car e-commerce platform Carsome Group (Carsome) announced Thursday it has appointed Digbijoy Shukla as its Head of Merger and Acquisition and Ecosystem Strategy. In this new role, Shukla’s key responsibility is to develop an end-to-end ecosystem strategy for Carsome to ensure a seamless experience throughout the automotive ownership journey, Carsome said in a statement. It…

Singapore insurtech firm Igloo closes $19M Series B round led by Cathay Innovation

Singapore insurtech firm Igloo announced Thursday that it has raised $19 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm. The round also saw the participation from ACA Investments, a Daiwa-backed growth-stage investment fund, and existing investors including Openspace Ventures (a Temasek-backed and Southeast Asia focused multi-stage investor), Singtel Innov8…

Japanese space startup ElevationSpace raises $2.7M Seed funding

ElevationSpace Inc., a Japan-based space startup company that develops a space environment utilization and recovery platform to replace the International Space Station (ISS), announced Tuesday it has raised seed funding of $2.7 million from six investors, bringing its total raise to approximately $3 million. In addition, Masafumi Kawai, Partner/Chief Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)…

Singapore’s Mighty Jaxx nets $20M in Series A+ funding led by East Ventures

Mighty Jaxx, a Singapore-based collectibles maker, announced Monday the first close of $20 million in its oversubscribed Series A+ funding round, pushing the company’s valuation to over $200 million. The funding round, fuelled by burgeoning interest in the phygital and metaverse future, was led by East Ventures (Growth Fund) and includes new strategic investor Mirana Ventures - the venture…

Malaysia’s RHL Ventures scouts opportunities in ESG, healthcare & financial sectors as it finalizes Hibiscus fund

RHL Ventures, which is in the midst of finalizing funds for its Hibiscus Fund, is seeking opportunities in the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)-related, healthcare and financial sectors, a top executive said. “While these trends may not seem new, these themes have started gaining momentum in recent times,” the Malaysia-headquartered VC firm Co-founder and Co-Managing…

Wavemaker Partners closes fourth fund above goal at $136 million

Southeast Asian venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners announced Tuesday that it just 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…

Singapore voice AI start-up AI Rudder bags $50M in Series B funding to propel growth and international expansion

AI Rudder, a Singapore-based voice artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, announced Tuesday it has closed a $50 million Series B funding round, bringing total funding in the last 12 months to $60 million. New investors Tiger Global, Coatue, Cathay Innovation, First Plus and VenturesLab participated and were joined by previous investors Sequoia Capital India and Huashan Capital, AI Rudder said…

Binance launches payments technology company Bifinity

Blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Binance on Monday announced the launch of Bifinity, a payments technology company and its official fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Bifinity's on- and off-ramp solutions will empower businesses to adopt crypto and reach new audiences with easy, direct fiat-to-crypto transactions, Binance said in a statement. The announcement…

Australian FinTech firm Zeller doubles valuation to over $1B with $100M raise

Zeller, an Australia-based FinTech firm, said Thursday it has raised $100 million in Series B round at a valuation worth of $1 billion. The Series B, which saw Zeller more than double its valuation, was led by US-based Headline, with additional funds contributed by Australian industry superannuation fund Hostplus, Zeller said in a statement. Previous investors, including Square Peg,…