Biofourmis CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput
Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose weighs options to ‘gain back control’
She is exploring talks with new investors to buy out a majority stake of the fashion company; This comes as the board of Zilingo is set to meet to decide the fate of the company’s leadership changes.
Sea Group offered 10% stake in Indonesian digital bank Bank Mayora
Sea helped state-owned BNI transform Bank Mayora into a digital bank by providing services to develop its tech and business model; BNI recently acquired Bank Mayora by buying 1 billion new shares.
Biofourmis turns unicorn after US$300M Series D led by General Atlantic
To date, the medtech company has raised US$445M in total, counting SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Openspace Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and EDBI as backers; Biofourmis uses AI and ML-based solutions to enable personalised predictive care.
Openspace Ventures’s OSV+ closes growth-stage fund at US$200M
LPs include IDFC and unnamed institutional investors; OSV+ targets SEA-based firms in Series B and above, writing cheque sizes of US$20-25M per company; This means it will invest in 10 companies.
VN fintech firm Trusting Social bags US$65M Series C
The investor is Masan Group’s The Sherpa Company; It seeks to drive financial inclusion by generating credit insights from over a billion consumers; It provides this info to 170+ financial institutions across Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.
Neuron Mobility raises US$43.5M Series B
Investors include GSR Ventures, Square Peg, and EDBI; The capital will be used to manufacture more e-scooters and fuel its global expansion plans; The firm has grown its presence from seven cities in September 2020 to 26 cities today.
Social music creation platform BandLab adds US$12M more to close Series B at US$65M
Prosus Ventures is the new investor; BandLab’s cross-platform creative ecosystem comprises Mix Editor, a royalty-free Sounds library, Mastering, and AI-powered SongStarter; In December, it raised US$53M Series B, led by Vulcan Capital.
E-motorbike startup Dat Bike raises US$5.3M
Investors are Jungle Ventures and Wavemaker Partners; Dat Bike intends to use the new money to invest in technology, scale production, expand to metro and tier-I cities across the north, central and south Vietnam, and hire top talent.
Indonesian D2C eyewear brand Saturdays bags Series A funding
Investors include Altara Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners; Saturdays sells a range of affordable eyewear using an O2O approach; It currently operates a website, a dedicated app, and fifteen brick-and-mortar stores.
TheAsianparent acquires Vietnamese childcare platform Webtretho
Webtretho offers a platform for user-generated content covering parenthood, pregnancy, childcare, beauty, healthcare, and entertainment; It also operates Be Yeu, a social networking community for parents.
Indonesia’s Juragan Material raises US$4M seed led by Go-Ventures
Juragan operates a marketplace for construction materials and accessories and offers various payment methods and delivery options, supporting tax invoice provision.
Accel backs US$3M round of credit-scoring startup Finbots.AI
Finbots’s credit scorecard system ZScore helps banks and financial institutions process loan applications more efficiently and accurately; It has offices in Singapore, India, and the UAE.
Indonesian influencer marketplace BintanGo raises US$2.1M round
Investors include Investible, eWTP Tech Innovation Fund, Farquhar, Plug and Play, Aksara, and Redbadge Pacific; BintanGo’s SaaS-like platform provides productivity and monetisation tools and financial solutions for digital content creators.
Funding Societies enters neobanking space with investment in Indonesia’s Bank Index
Funding Societies allows MSMEs to apply for up to US$1.5M in working capital financing; In Feb, Funding Societies announced a US$294M funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
3moji aims to transform the way NFTs are used in metaverse with its composable avatars
The 3moji DApp allows users, brands and influencers to change the look of their avatars in the metaverse and across Web2 apps; It recently raised US$750K seed from Collab + Currency, Big Brain Holdings, Definitive Capital, and Gmoney.
Fintech unicorn Revolut gets MAS nod for crypto trading
The Revolut app will now support the buying, selling, and holding of cryptocurrencies, pushing the company a step closer to becoming a super app for financial services.
HK chatbot startup Ominichat bags US$1.8M to enter SEA
Investors’ names aren’t disclosed; Omnichat helps online sellers to centralise their conversations with customers from WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Line, and WeChat into a single platform.
IFS Capital leads US$1.7M seed round of Malaysian EWA firm Payd
1982 Ventures, The Hive Southeast Asia, Delight Capital and Antler also co-invested; Payd is a B2B platform that allows employees to receive up to 50% of their salaries as they earn; It currently has over 20,000 employee sign-ups.
TikTok’s e-commerce arm sets up shop in Malaysia
Business owners in the country can start signing up to sell goods using their TikTok accounts; TikTok Shop aims to support small businesses that have not yet set up physical stores due to high investment costs.
Teacher upskilling startup Akadasia US$550K funding
Investors are EduSpaze, Spiegels Future Family Fund, and former Meta director Andrew Hwang; Akadasia provides educators with professional development courses, digital tools to design lessons, and access to a network of teachers.
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