Philippine payments platform PayMongo raises $31M in Series B funding

Philippine FinTech and online payments company PayMongo said Monday it has secured $31 million in Series B funding to scale its operations. Participating in the round are Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund, Philippine VC firms ICCP-SBI Venture Partners and Lisa Gokongwei’s Kaya Founders, together with existing investors Global Founders Capital and SOMA Capital, PayMongo said in a statement. Also…

Malaysia’s drone tech hub ambition: Opportunities & Challenges [Part 1]

Editor's note: In this first part, we briefly look into the opportunities awaiting Malaysia drone tech startups. We talked to drone startups, MDEC, MRANTI and Gobi Partners, which invested in Aerodyne.  The groundwork for Malaysia to become a drone tech hub in the region can be traced back to as far as 2017 when government agency Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) kicked off…

Singapore foodtech firm Next Gen Foods raises a record-breaking $100M Series A funding round

Next Gen Foods, makers of TiNDLE, the popular chicken made from plants, said Tuesday it has raised a $100 million Series A funding round – the largest Series A to date for a plant-based meat company. Participating in the Series A round are new international investors Alpha JWC, the Southeast Asian venture capital firm; the Singapore-based global investment fund, EDBI; and UK-based MPL…

Indian healthcare platform GOQii raises $50M Series C funding from Sumeru Ventures, Modality and others

Indian healthcare platform GOQii Inc announced Wednesday its Series C funding round of $50 million led by Sumeru Ventures, a global fund with a focus on next generation technology areas. GOQii said in a statement that the company has raised funding across equity, preference shares, notes and debt. Modality (Digality), a provider of primary health care and community services across the United…

Vietnam’s Society Pass completes acquisition of Philippines online grocery delivery service Pushkart.ph

Vietnam-based loyalty platform Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) announced Tuesday that it has acquired Pushkart.ph, an online grocery delivery service in Philippines. As a result of the acquisition, Pushkart.ph becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SoPa, SoPa said in a statement.  The move kicks-off SoPa’s expansion into the Philippines market. Leveraging on SoPa’s capital, Pushkart.ph will…

Singapore insurtech provider Cyber Sierra raises $4.3M seed fund led by Leo Capital

Cyber Sierra, a Singapore-based technology-enabled cyber insurtech provide, announced Tuesday the completion of a $4.3 million seed round of financing led by Leo Capital, with participation from AppWorks, Credit Saison, as well as angel investors including prominent founders and leaders in the cloud and insurance sectors. With this round of financing, Cyber Sierra said in a statement that it…

Community is crucial to driving innovation, says WORQ Coworking Space’s Stephanie Ping [ORIGIN Innovation Awards Q&A]

According to Stephanie Ping, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at WORQ Coworking Space, community is essential to driving innovation, since it is within a community where innovators share knowledge, resources, and ideas. "WORQ’s vision is to create a world where people and community prosper by working together. We are creating the largest and most productive coworking community by taking…

Carsome completes acquisition of iCar Asia

Malaysia-headquartered integrated car e-commerce platform Carsome Group announced Thursday the acquisition of the remaining 80.1 percent stake in iCar Asia from the Catcha Group and other shareholders of iCar Asia, a listings and content automotive platform in Southeast Asia. Carsome said in a statement that upon the completion of the acquisition, Carsome became the sole shareholder of iCar…

Malaysia to announce digital bank license winners next month – report

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) targets to announce the winners of its digital banking licenses next month, according to the central bank's governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus. “We are in the ‘advanced stage’ of assessing the applications for digital banks and we target to announce the digital banks with the publication of our annual report at the end of March,” she said during the central bank's…