HK-based travel and leisure booking platform Klook raises US$200M; Investors include Aspex Management (lead), Sequoia China, Softbank Vision Fund 1; Post-pandemic, Klook is focused on two main areas — digitising the experiences booking sector and launching new verticals such as staycations and car rental. More here
Will Ovo complicate a gojek-Tokopedia merger?; A merger could put gojek’s payments platform GoPay front and centre in Tokopedia – a huge coup; For gojek, teaming up with Tokopedia could mean access to the platform’s millions of merchants — potential clients for GoPay’s productive loans — or collaborations between the two companies’ respective PayLater products. More here
Malaysia’s fintech startup CapBay bags US$20M Series A; Investors include KK Fund and local angel investors; CapBay is a multi-bank supply chain finance and P2P financing platform; It uses existing trade data and relationships to facilitate inclusive business financing; It claims to have funded US$24.7M across 500 investment notes on its platform since launch in March ’20. More here
Kollective Ventures and Joseph Phua’s family office Turn Capital acquire taiwanese podcast startup SoundOn; SoundOn will continue to operate under its current brand; SoundOn produces its own content shows featuring Taiwan’s top influencers, besides connecting podcasters to advertisers; It claims to have 35M monthly podcast downloads. More here
Malaysian logistics and supply chain platform iStore iSend raises US$5.5M; Lead investors are Gobi Partners and EasyParcel; The startup has plans to expand to markets such as Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam; iStore iSend is an end-to-end fulfilment solution company providing clients with a complete omnichannel experience. More here
Singapore’s consumer credit management platform Lendela bags US$2M pre-Series A; Promise Future International and Luxembourg-based 2be.lu Investments led the round; Lendela connects borrowers to partner lenders through an online loan application form; In 2018, it raised US$942K seed led by Cocoon Capital and IMO Ventures. More here
‘Founders should be able to back up their ideas with sales’: Golden Gate’s newly-appointed Principal Jeffrey Chua; According to him, post-COVID, investments will get easier and things will move faster and smoother; Due to the pandemic, a lot of deals that were in the US$10M+ range were slowed down or stalled since people were not allowed to travel and visit these firms in person. More here
Thai online car rental marketplace Drivehub raises “seven-figure” Series A; Lead investors are Toyota Tsusho, CAC Capital, KK Fund; The money will be used to expand into new markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; Drivehub claims it has grown by 50 per cent compared to the same period last year. More here
MC Payment poised to become Singapore’s first listed digital payments firm; Artivision shareholders approved the proposed reverse takeover of e- payments company MC Payment; With the expected completion of the acquisition on Feb 18, Artivision will be renamed MC Payment, and is set to be listed on the SGX-ST. More here
500 Startups promotes Ee Ling as Regional Director to spearhead innovation programmes in APAC; Ling will be heading its BD for corporate and startup innovation programmes in the region; She was previously the Singapore Country Lead (Innovation & Partnerships) for 500 Startups and has built and led innovation programmes for corporates and startups in the city-state and Malaysia. More here
Podcast Network Asia (PNA) raises US$750K to expand to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia; Investors include Foxmont Capital, Venturra Discovery, Kumu; PNA provides podcast creators with access to production support and monetisation opportunities; It claims to have grown its roster to 415 podcasts, with over 10M listeners. More here
Catcha Investment joins SPAC craze, files to raise US$250M in US IPO; While it may pursue an acquisition or a business combination target in any business, industry or geography, it intends to focus its search on a target with operations or prospective operations in the technology, digital media, fintech, or digital services sectors across APAC, in particular SEA and Australia. More here
Singapore faces talent crunch as tech giants scale up; The city-state is aiming to become a regional tech hub but faces a severe talent crunch as more firms move in; Tencent, Bytedance, Zoom, Grab and Sea are among companies expanding in Singapore, fuelling a war for tech talent in the city-state, where the jobless rate had reached a 16-year high due to a coronavirus-induced recession. More here
MDEC launches Alternative Funding Program 2021; It will partner with 11 crowdfunding operators to help Malaysian entrepreneurs tide the economic challenges brought on by COVID-19; This follows the successful launch of the same programme in 2020 which saw a total of 16 companies successfully listed on participating platforms with a total of US$5M raised.
Indonesia bourse launches tech classification to lure investors; It seeks to attract more investment in technology and health care stocks as it looks to encourage trading amid the COVID-19 pandemic; The new IDX Industrial Classification consists of 12 sectors, 35 subsectors, 69 industries and 130 subindustries. More here
5 promising AI startups in the Philippines ready for investments; They are Expedock, Rumarocket, Aiah, PhilCare and FinScore; Local VC Kickstart Ventures is in pursuit of worthy AI startups in the region to invest US$200M in funding. More here
India explores a digital version of the rupee;It is one of the many ways that country’s central bank RBI is considering increasing the adoption of digital payment systems; For digital currencies, the Central Bank Digital Currencies will be legal tender and a central bank liability in the digital form. More here
SEA’s podcast market is ripe for adoption; we just need to educate the public, says Joseph Phua; He expects there to be a significant number of podcast ventures pop up soon in SEA, and is looking to make further investments/acquisitions in the general audio entertainment space. More here
IdeaSpace grants US$20K each to top 3 Philippine startups in virtual accelerator programme; The startups are Workbean, Humble and Agro-DigitalPH; Along with 20 other hopefuls, the three startups underwent IdeaSpace’s four-month acceleration programme. More here
Vietnam launches National Technology Innovation programme; It aims to facilitate and support enterprises to transfer, innovate, and perfect technologies as well as create high-quality products with high added value; Furthermore, it will promote the transfer of technologies for agricultural development in rural and mountainous areas and regions and train scientific and tech HR. More here
From under US$1: Ovo rolls out new investment product; The Indonesian e-wallet unicorn Ovo and mutual fund platform Bareksa have teamed up to launch a new investment product allowing small savers to buy funds for as low as US$0.71 from their app; The aim is to increase financial inclusion and encourage more Indonesians, especially the younger generation, to start investing. More here
VeMoBro e-commerce platform launches in Philippines; It offers a wide variety of products from food and grocery items, home essentials, tech gadgets and accessories, and automotive products; The platform connects MSMEs to potential customers; A business unit of Polaris Digital Platform Enterprise, VeMoBro has a logistics system with its experienced freight forwarding partner. More here
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