Ecosystem Roundup: Go-Ventures said to be closing US$200M Fund; Una Brands, Speedhome cutting staff; another setback for 3AC

Singapore VC Panthera Growth raises first half of US$250M Fund II
The fund plans to invest in growth-stage startups that have achieved product-market fit across India and SEA; Investments will be disbursed to about a dozen portfolio companies with an average cheque size of US$20M each.

Go-Ventures said to be closing US$200M Fund II in Q3
The fund is expected to see a mix of LPs, including sovereign wealth funds, family offices and insurance firms from across Europe, the US, China, South Africa, and APAC; Go-Ventures has about 25 firms in its portfolio.

Stripe, LinkedIn Co-Founders back Entrepreneur First’s US$158M Series C round
It will target a direct investment of US$100M over the next three years in hundreds of entrepreneurs; EF also said the aggregate value of companies created through its platform in Singapore has exceeded US$1B.

Malaysian proptech firm Speedhome to cut workforce
The number of affected staff was not disclosed; Speedhome has 99 employees; As per a spokesperson, the company was advised to “recalibrate” its business plan, citing “higher interest rates, economic uncertainty and funding environment.”

SG e-commerce roll-up firm Una Brands lays off less than 10% of staff
In SEA, the company has seen a “negligible” impact from the macro-environment due to “strong” growth from brands, especially those on the Shopee and Lazada marketplaces, says CEO Kiren Tanna.

Ascend Vietnam Ventures’s early-stage fund AVV Alpha exceeds US$50M target
AVV Alpha intends to invest up to US$2M each in 25 startups by 2023; it will then follow on with cheques of up to US$5M; In the past nine months, the VC firm has invested in ten startups, including Kilo, Virtual Internships, and Mandu.

‘Vietnam can be an excellent launchpad for regional, global startups’
Eddie Thai says the country has great tech talent, affordable startup costs, and a relatively accessible local market; The GDP is forecast to grow at least 5 per cent this year and 7 per cent next year.

Ankiti Bose resigns from Zilingo’s directorships
Bose claimed that Zilingo’s board of directors had failed to show any reports issued by Kroll or Deloitte, which were investigating her alleged misconduct, that would justify her termination as CEO.

Mapan closes US$15M Series A round to grow its ‘Arisan’ service in Indonesia
Lead backers are Patamar Capital and Astra Digital; Through Mapan’s Arisan product, lower-income groups can increase their buying power to purchase household goods such as cookware, electronics, and furniture.

HK’s FreeD raises US$15M to open Singapore office
Investors are Daiwa ACA APAC Growth, Musketeer Capital, and the SOSV Select Fund; FreeD will use the funding to expand its tech teams in HK, South Korea, and Canada and build its commerce teams in new markets.

Funding Societies acquires payments solution startup CardUp
CardUp is a payment solution that helps individuals and businesses make payments to suppliers and collect payments from customers digitally; CardUp’s payment services will complement Funding Societies’s lending products.

Philippine’s Edukasyon.ph secures bridge funding
Investors are KSR Ventures and Lorinet Foundation, and Bisk Ventures; Edukasyon.ph is an online platform that gives Filipino students access to resources for senior high school and university learning as well as scholarships, online courses, and internships.

Mastercard CMO backs yufin’s US$1M funding round
Other backers are Kathy Burdon (ex-Cadence Capital), 77 Capital, Boleh Ventures, and Zennon Kapron; yufin enables SMEs in the Philippines to accept digital payments, sell online on digital stores, order from B2B marketplaces and access better loans.

Seeds Capital backs SG greentech firm Zuno Carbon’s pre-seed round
Another investor is Blue InCube Ventures; Zuno aims to automate organisational carbon accounting and help companies measure greenhouse gas emissions and streamline compliance monitoring.

Meet the 10 Asia-focused DAOs looking to script history amid the crypto storm
The main advantages of a DAO are that every investor has voting rights and can contribute to the project.

Tencent, Ant, Baidu, others pledge to stop NFT secondary trading
While the Chinese government currently does not have any specific regulations on NFTs, it has banned crypto trading; Tencent and Ant Group have opened their online digital collectible marketplaces in recent months.

Three Arrows pulled up by MAS for false information
It is also accused of exceeding the assets under management threshold for a registered fund management company; When the firm obtained registered fund management company status in 2013, it was allowed to manage assets of no more than US$179.6M.

Taiwan to roll out digital currency for public use after trials
The digital currency will only be issued after properly educating the public about its benefits, setting up regulations, and putting up a legal framework.

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