Ecosystem Roundup: PE deal value down 52% in 2022 in SEA | BITKRAFT expands into Asia

Dear Pro member,

Just days after Tracxn released a report about Southeast Asia’s startup funding in 2022, Bain & Company launched its Southeast Asia Private Equity Report in 2023.

The new report also paints a bad picture: The PE market saw a slowdown in deal activity in 2022. The deal value in the region saw a 52% fall last year compared to 2021, with the deal count also declining 15% y-o-y. The activity was solid through H1 2022 before falling in H2.

The internet and tech sector saw fewer large ticket investments and lower overall activity levels in 2022 vs 2021 but still accounted for the bulk of deals done in the region, accounting for 55% of total deal volume in the region in 2022.

However, the Bain report finds that despite the near-term uncertainty, the long-term outlook for PE investment in SEA remains positive. Its analysis shows that macroeconomic conditions in the region have been more resilient than the rest of Asia Pacific.

With the market continuing to be volatile, a full recovery will likely take many more months.

In another development, global Web3 and gaming VC firm BITKRAFT announced its Asia expansion and appointed former Riot Games President and former CEO of Garena, Jin Oh, as its Asia Partner. We spoke with him soon after the launch.

Today’s Ecosystem Roundup also carries many other exciting news stories and features.

Regards.

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The gist: PE deal value plunges 52% in 2022 in SEA: Bain report
More details: Deal count also plunged 15% y-o-y; Still, SEA remains an attractive place to deploy capital in the long term as it’s more resilient compared to the rest of APAC.

The gist: Monkʼs Hill Ventures (MHV) hits final close of Fund III at US$200M
The target: The firm was originally seeking to raise US$150M for this fund, according to SEC filings.
The investments: MHV Fund III has already invested Rainforest, Upmesh, Ordinary Folk, Tigerhall, and Crowde.

The gist: DishBrain owner Cortical Labs closes US$10M financing round
The investors: Horizons Ventures, LifeX Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and Radar Ventures.
The company: Cortical uses clusters of lab-cultivated neurons from human stem cells to form a DishBrain that can grow, adapt, and learn faster than purely silicon-based AI.

The gist: Failed crypto firm Babel to officially start in-court restructuring
The details: Babel Finance‘s co-founder and ex-CEO Flex Yang said the company’s moratorium has been heard in Singapore court; The court has extended the creditor protection for the company to last until July 21.

The gist: Digital doc verification startup Accredify closes US$7M Series A
The investors: iGlobe Partners, SIG Venture Capital, Pavilion Capital, and Qualgro.
The plans: The startup has a presence in nine markets and eight industries and will focus on Singapore, Australia, and Japan in the coming year.

The gist: Earth VC joins US$5M Series A round of Israeli startup ITC
The company: ITC develops cutting-edge computer vision and AI/ML algorithms to predict traffic patterns and prevent traffic congestion before it accumulates.
The plans: The startup will use the capital to expand into SEA.

The gist: Bitkraft onboards ex-Garena CEO and former Temasek director
Details: Jin Oh and Jonathan Huang will lead the Asia operations
The company: Bitkraft operates four venture funds with over US$600M in AuM and has a portfolio of over 100 companies as of August 2022.

The gist: India’s startup-focused business school Mesa nets US$4.1M
The investors: Elevation Capital and angels.
The plans: To develop a “hands-on, application-based” curriculum designed in collaboration with industry leaders and the future employers of the school’s initial 60 students.

The gist: SG’s Ryde bags US$2M from Octava family office
The company: Ryde is a social carpooling service, whose services also include an e-payment platform, insurance purchases, and taxi bookings.

The gist: Seedly co-founder’s new startup Mito Health secures US$1.3M
The investors: Forge Ventures, and the founders and executives of ShopBack, Carousell, and PatSnap.
The company: Mito augments medical expertise with AI to create personalised health plans for customers based on their diagnostic results and wearable data.

The gist: SG cybersecurity firm Group-IB exits Russian market
The details: Co-founder and CEO Dmitry Volkov sold his stake in the business to its local management team; This marks the completion of Group-IB’s plan to diversify its regional business, which was announced in 2022.

The gist: Jungle Ventures names former B Capital exec Menka Sajnani as partner
The details: Before B Capital, Sajnani was with Jungle Ventures between December 2015 and August 2019 as the platform’s global head of fundraising and investor relations.

Features, guest posts, and Echelon updates

‘There is strong reaction against the P2E gaming genre’: BITKRAFT Asia Partner Jin Oh
BITKRAFT believes the already blurred lines between the physical and digital gaming worlds will disintegrate and give way to a ‘synthetic reality’, said Oh after the announcement of the company’s Asia expansion.

How AnyMind Group achieves profitability through its approach to human resource and leadership
This year, after the IPO, AnyMind Group aims to focus on increasing its profit by growing its D2C and e-commerce business more aggressively.

How Transparently.AI uses AI to detect accounting manipulation, fraud
Following its participation in Plug and Play accelerator programme, Transparently.AI is looking forward to extending its deal pipeline.

The co-working industry needs to rethink its role: The Great Room CEO
Beyond providing just seats in front of computers, they need to provide activity-based working and meeting spaces, as well as spaces for training, collaboration and learning, says Jaelle Ang.

Is ChatGPT a great invention or is it being ‘hyped’?
When using ChatGPT, we must acknowledge that we are conversing with a training machine built from a variety of heterogeneous data.

From crunching numbers to transforming data: How I made a career switch from accounting to tech
Data analyst Clarence Tan says switching from accounting to tech was the best decision he has made; It provided him with more opportunities and helped him significantly grow his skills.

Championing disaster tech, meet Prudence Foundation at Echelon!
Get to know Prudence Foundation as they gather the most exciting startups working on disaster tech at the Echelon Asia Summit 2023!

Ditch your other plans and Meetup with us in Singapore
The Singapore stop of e27’s regional meetups is happening today, 21 April 2023. Here’s why you should be there.

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