There are reasons why the later stage funding rounds that we managed to cover in December are ground-breaking.
We saw the highest ever funding round ever secured by an edutech startup in the market. We also saw leading US athletes and celebrities getting into the Southeast Asian market through their investment.
Most importantly, after spending years going crazy over the unicorn phenomenon, in December, some startups began to put profitability as part of their goal for the new year.
Here are those phenomenal funding rounds:
Ruangguru
Funding: US$150 million in Series C
Investor(s): Global Atlantic, GGV Capital, EV Growth, UOB Venture Management
The funding round is meant to support the company’s expansion effort to Vietnam, where it has launched under the brand Kien Guru.
AWAK
Funding: US$40 million
Investor(s): Vickers Venture Partners, Advanced MedTech, SEEDS Capital
The medtech startup will use the proceeds from this round to complete the pivotal clinical trial of its AWAK PD wearable dialysis device.
Travelio
Funding: Series B extension
Investor(s): Samsung Ventures
Travelio said it plans to use the investment to accelerate the company’s target in 2020 with deeper integration and partnership with the conglomerate’s network, technology, and electronic-related ecosystem.
Carsome
Funding: US$50 million in Series C
Investor(s): MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Ondine Capital, Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures
The capital will help “consolidate Carsome’s market leadership in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with expansion into more cities in Southeast Asia”, and to accelerate financing product offerings for dealers and consumers with multi-country roll-outs over the next 12 months.
Style Theory
Funding: US$15 million in Series B
Investor(s): SoftBank Ventures Asia, Alpha JWC Ventures, The Paradise Group
The company said that it plans to use part of the funding for developing its tech platform. The company also plans to start using RFID tagging and will attach passive RFID tags on each of its rental items to manage its inventory.
Hummingbird
Funding: US$19 million in Series B
Investor(s): Mirae Asset Venture Investment, GNTech Venture Capital, Heritas Capital, Seeds Capital, Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital
Hummingbird Bioscience is a biotherapeutics company that brings the discovery and development of new precision antibody therapeutics for difficult-to-treat conditions.
Modalku
Funding: Undisclosed debt funding
Investor(s): Triodos Microfinance Fund, Triodos Fair Share Fund
The company said it will use the funds to accelerate its vision of driving financial inclusion and widening credit access for the region’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Also Read: Indonesian legal tech startup Legalku raises seed funding from UMG Idealab
Kredivo
Funding: US$90 million in Series C
Investor(s): Asia Growth Fund, Square Peg Capital, Singtel Innov8, TMI (Telkomsel Indonesia), Cathay Innovation, Kejora Intervest, Mirae Asset Securities, Reinventure, DST Partners
This funding round brings the total capital raised by the company in 2019 alone to more than US$200 million, across both debt and equity, with the debt being provided by a consortium of lenders including banks and credit funds.
Collab Asia
Funding: US$7.5 million in Series B
Investor(s): Gorilla Private Equity, Samsung Ventures, PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund L.P., NCORE VENTURES, Altos Ventures
Collab Asia said it plans to use the funds to create localised content for Asia and focus on helping creators and content companies produce, distribute, monetise, and build audiences across multiple digital platforms.
—
Image Credit: Andrew Neel on Unsplash
The post These later stage funding rounds of December are the perfect closure to the year 2019 appeared first on e27.