The startup landscape in Southeast Asia is thriving as diverse companies secure significant funding in 2024, signalling sustained investor confidence in the region’s innovation.
Notable ventures include FlyORO in Singapore, pioneering sustainable aviation fuels, and Be Group in Vietnam, dominating the multi-service consumer platform sector. Thailand’s UniFAHS stands out with its focus on sustainable food production using patented phage technology, addressing issues like antimicrobial resistance. Polyhedra in Seychelles, securing a Series A investment, leads the charge in Web3 infrastructure development through the zkBridge protocol.
Indonesian startups Komunal and Semaai raise substantial amounts for their neo-rural banking and agritech solutions, respectively. Additionally, Japan’s Micoworks excels in optimizing communication for businesses.
The varied sectors and strong investor interest underscore the dynamic and promising nature of Southeast Asia’s entrepreneurial landscape.
Below are the details of the investments the companies in the region raised in January so far:
FlyORO (Singapore)
Amount raised: US$1.6M
Stage: pre-Series A
Investors: Audacy Ventures (lead), Investible, unnamed private investors
Company profile: FlyORO is a provider of last-mile sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) blending technologies. Founded by Jonathan Yeo, Joe Ng, and Genevieve Toh, FlyORO provides a modular, on-demand blending service of SAF and jet fuel to enable aviation on its emissions reduction journey. It enables flyers the flexibility to align their ESG targets per flight.
Be Group (Vietnam)
Amount raised: US$30.3M
Stage: Strategic
Investor: VPBank Securities Joint Stock Company
Company profile: Be Group is the startup behind the multi-service consumer platform ‘Be’. Started around five years ago, Be Group has worked with over 300,000 drivers. In 2023 alone, the company facilitated over 120 million rides, maintaining a dominant 35 per cent market share in the ride-hailing sector across 40 cities and provinces in Vietnam. The platform currently offers more than 15 services, including multimodal transportation, express delivery, food delivery, insurance, and telecommunications.
UniFAHS (Thailand)
Amount raised: US$1.4M
Stage: seed
Investors: A2D Ventures (lead), ADB Ventures, InnoSpace
Company profile: Founded in 2020, UniFAHS utilises its patented phage technology for sustainable and safe food production, specialising in meat alternatives. The company actively contributes to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and advocates for climate-friendly agriculture. UniFAHS adopts a ‘One Health’ approach, recognising the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health to address challenges holistically.
Polyhedra (Seychelles)
Amount raised: Undisclosed
Stage: Series A
Investor: OKX Ventures
Company profile: Polyhedra Network builds the next generation of infrastructure for Web3, focusing on interoperability, scalability and privacy, using advanced zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology. Polyhedra Network is the company behind zkBridge protocol, which facilitates trustless cross-chain infrastructure for Layer 1 and Layer 2 interoperability. By utilizing ZK proof technology, zkBridge enables the receiving chain to verify specific state transitions on the sending chain. This approach ensures better security without relying on external assumptions and reduces the costs associated with on-chain verification.
Komunal (Indonesia)
Amount raised: US$5.5M
Stage: Series A+
Investors: Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia (lead), Jafco Asia, Skystar Capital, Sovereign Capital, Gobi Partners.
Company profile: Komunal is a fintech company offering neo-rural bank services in Indonesia. Launched in 2019, Komunal digitises rural banks by combining funding access and hyperlocal lending to support economic growth in Indonesia. It provides financial services to the underbanked population through its unique partnership with the rural banks in Indonesia. The firm’s vision is to elevate rural banks and SMEs in the archipelago to serve their local community better.
Micoworks (Japan)
Amount raised: US$24.5M
Stage: Series B
Investors: Vertex Growth (lead), JAFCO Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, ALL STAR SAAS FUND, Eight Roads Ventures.
Company profile: Micoworks is a marketing company that optimises communication between companies and their customers. Headquartered in Kita-ku and led by CEO Osamu Yamada, Micoworks develops and provides marketing platforms MicoCloud and Micomii. MicoCloud is a marketing platform that optimises communication between companies and their customers. In addition to offering highly extended functions for the official LINE account, it collects data across multiple channels. This data collection enables optimal communication tailored to customer needs. Furthermore, MicoCloud creates tangible business results for clients by providing a one-stop service that includes consulting and operational support.
Funding Societies (Singapore, Indonesia)
Amount raised: Not disclosed
Stage: Strategic
Investors: Khazanah, CGC Digital
Company profile: Established in 2015, Funding Societies provides financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially micro and small businesses currently unserved by existing financial institutions. Since its inception, it claims to have disbursed over US$3.5 billion in business financing through five million transactions, positively impacting over 100,000 businesses across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Semaai (Indonesia)
Amount raised: US$4.7M
Stage: Debt and equity
Investors: CyberAgent Capital (Japan), Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Ruvento, MyAsiaVC, Heracles Ventures, Surge, Accion Venture Lab, Beenext
Company profile: Semaai is a ‘farmer-first’ company building full-stack agritech solutions to help farmers and rural MSMEs such as toko tanis in Indonesia maximise their earning potential and access better financing, services and new markets.
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