Shopback Co-Founder Joel Leong
ShopBack raises US$80M from Temasek-backed 65 Equity Partners
ShopBack has more than 35M users across 10 countries and powers US$3.5B in annual sales; The platform also facilitates 1M shopping journeys for over 10K merchant partners every day.
SG mobile app developer to list in US via US$2.5B SPAC deal
Asia Innovations Group will merge with Magnum Opus Acquisition, bringing in US$200M in cash to the firm; The deal is expected to conclude in Q1 2023; It also intends to raise up to US$150M in additional capital as part of the merger process.
Malaysian graftbuster probes MDEC over US$4.9M in false claims
The anti-graft agency’s investigation is centred upon two undisclosed companies that were paid claims by MDEC amounting to more than 19M ringgit and more than 7M ringgit to run training programmes from 2016 to 2020.
‘From a cybersecurity perspective, the Asian market still uses legacy tools’
e27 talked to Daniel Bernard, CMO, SentinelOne, which recently launched a US$100M global cybersecurity fund, S Ventures Fund; The VC firm sees a trend for desired automation, consolidation, and cloud security.
JD.com founder settles lawsuit for alleged rape
A former University of Minnesota student accuses Richard Liu of rape in 2018; A lawsuit was handed to Liu in 2019, with the former student accusing him of six counts of false imprisonment, civil assault and battery, and sexual assault or battery.
Crypto lender Nexo in talks to invest in or buy more companies in Asia
These companies range from distressed ones and those facing difficulties for various reasons to businesses; The potential deals are aimed at either expanding its footprint in Asia or allowing it to move into new verticals within crypto.
NFT gaming startup Metastrike closes US$3.3M funding round
The investors are GD10 Ventures, Jump Capital, and Kucoin Labs; Metastrike is an FPS-RPG, featuring an array of digital assets that players can collect and trade on the open market, such as weapons, skins, and projectiles.
Terra co-founder Daniel Shin likely to testify on Terra collapse
While the subject of the probe was not made public, Shin will likely be questioned on the crash of the company’s TerraUSD and Luna, Terra’s native token; His co-founder Do Kwon is also under investigation by Korea’s police.
Membership-driven e-commerce platform for essential goods Cosmart raises US$5M
The investors are Lightspeed, East Ventures, and Vertex Ventures SEA & India; Cosmart has already partnered with over 80+ principals and 500+ brands and has delivered over 100,000 products in Indonesia.
No funding winter for early-stage deals in SEA, say VCs
While there’s been an overall decline in early-stage deals in SEA during the first nine months of 2022, most VCs feel the region has largely managed to beat the global funding winter.
500 Global backs HK insurtech firm Yas’s US$4.5M raise
Other backers are Noria Capital, Zemu VC, and JKL Capital; Yas offers blockchain-enabled insurance products that provide coverage for accidents and NFT investments.
Xend founder launches Philippine proptech venture builder
Bjorn Pardo will also be spearheading the venture builder AHG Lab’s push into “proptech+”, which he says is the use of proptech solutions to address the needs of surrounding communities in addition to the needs of real estate stakeholders.
Echelon 2022 to discuss the state of the SEA startup ecosystem
Catch leading experts and industry insiders at Echelon 2022 as they discuss the post-pandemic tech startup landscape; They will touch upon why startups need to pay attention to debt restructuring, expenditures, marketing, and fundraising.
MENA on the rise with push and pull global economic drivers
With the right balance between investment returns and startup potential, PEs and VCs are more intrigued by regions like MENA.
The profitability trade-off: How startups navigate uncertain times to achieve quality growth
As startups progress from seed to early-stage and then growth and late-stage funding, they must recalibrate between profitability and growth.
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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.
The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here.
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The post Ecosystem Roundup: ShopBack raises US$80M, MDEC under investigation for US$4.9M false claims, SG’s ASIG to list in US via US$2.5B SPAC deal appeared first on e27.