Ecosystem Roundup: MoMo raises US$200M, becomes a unicorn; ex-CTO sues Society Pass; ONE Championship bags US$150M

Ex-CTO drags Society Pass into court for “breaching employment contract”, seeks over US$1.3M in damages
Rahul Narain says Society Pass failed to pay him his earned compensation in salary, bonus payments, healthcare reimbursements, equity awards.

Vietnam’s fintech firm MoMo joins unicorn club following US$200M Series E round
Investors include Mizuho, Ward Ferry Management and Goodwater Capital; MoMo will channel the fresh funds to increase the reach of its offerings to 31M customers, starting with a bill payment service.

Northstar Group hits final close of Fund V at US$590M in capital
Northstar V will invest in mature growth companies, with select investments in early-stage opportunities, in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, other countries in SEA; It is working on several new opportunities for Northstar V that should close in H1 2022.

ONE Championship raises US$150M
Investors include Guggenheim Investments and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA); The firm has already raised US$50M in equity funding from Al-Rayyan Holding, a subsidiary of QIA; ONE is also proposing a merger with Gores Holdings VII, a US$480M blank cheque vehicle listed on the Nasdaq.

SEA-focused SPAC RF Acquisition files for US$100M Nasdaq IPO
The SPAC plans to raise US$115M; It will seek a business combination with a SEA company in the new economy sector, even as it may pursue a target in any industry or geographic location.

CHAI rakes in US$45M to develop a fully automated end-to-end payment infra for merchants
Investors include SoftBank Ventures Asia, Nyca Partners, KT Investment, Samsung NEXT and B Capital; Through CHAI Port, merchants can activate and offer over 30 payment options, such as credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers and cross-border payments to their customers.

Fashion e-commerce platform Pomelo raising US$20M in Seriec C3
A tranche of about US$12.5M has been received from investors, including European family office Ambient Sound Investments, TA Activity Singapore, and Lavender Investments; In 2019, the firm announced a US$52M Series C from Central Group, and InterVest Star SEA Growth Fund, among others.

MDI Ventures launches angel investment network eMerge with an investment in GOX
eMerge allows angels to invest via a syndication model under an SPV, or co-invest with MDI and other pre-seed and seed-stage VCs; GOX is Indonesian gaming live streaming platform and community.

Solana block explorer Solscan bags US$4M to roll out subscription-based analytics platform
Investors include Multicoin Capital, Electric Capital, Jump Capital, Sequoia India, and CoinGecko; With Solscan Analytics, developers can utilise both on-chain and off-chain data for high-quality market intelligence.

Why Fidelity Funding believes startups need more than just funding to succeed
To curb the high failure rate in the startup ecosystem, Fidelity Funding builds a model that provides startups with more than just money.

Taiwan’s TNL Media Group ropes in Tim Draper as investor
It comes a year after it closed a financing round from Palm Drive, Guitar Hero, and XRM Media co-founder Kai Huang; TNL Media has also launched its seventh media brand, Ohsowow, which will mainly focus on Korean entertainment, culture, and lifestyle content.

Binance leads US$1.5M seed round of P2E gaming guild community Cosmic Guild
Co-investors are DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, and Play Ventures; Cosmic Guild holds a portfolio of NFT game assets of crypto games that are loaned to guild members who can play using the NFTs and earn yields on games.

Hub Global JSC, an ecosystem for blockchain startups, gets VinaCapital backing
It focuses on three key areas: incubator/accelerator, blockchain community and sandbox, and blockchain investment fund; The newly established blockchain fund is backed by ten LPs and several entrepreneurs.

OnMic, Vietnam’s answer to Clubhouse, scores seed funding from Touchstone Partners
OnMic is an audio content platform that provides voice-streaming chat rooms featuring no visuals and only minimal text; The app also allows live interaction between speakers and audiences to discuss topics spanning spirituality, travel, job counselling, financial advice, and dating.

Pitik nets funding from Arise, Wavemaker Partners
Pitik provides poultry farmers with a full-stack farm management system; It enables them to capture data across the value chain and then utilise this data to improve the efficiency of their operations; Pitik has partnered with farmers in over 20 districts in Java and claims to have secured more than 4M annual chicken production capacity.

Agritech startup Agriaku raises seed funding
Investors include Arise, Wright Partners, and MDI Ventures; Agriaku builds a marketplace that connects agricultural supply stores with manufacturers or first-level distributors; This model allows farmers to procure a full catalogue of SKUs of agri-inputs with ease and at a nominally competitive price point.

AirAsia Food to launch in Indonesia early next year
It has opened applications for prospective partners in the country; AirAsia’s food delivery service was first launched in Malaysia, which it subsequently expanded to Singapore and Thailand.

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