‘Gojek wants to move from the idea of a super app to an on-demand company for everything’: Group CTO
According to Severan Rault, the role of CTOs has changed over the past decade; His responsibility is now to bring technology into every function of the organisation.
Kredivo to go public via merger with Victory Park Capital’s SPAC at US$2.5B valuation
The transaction is expected to deliver over US$430M of gross proceeds; The public listing will enable Kredivo’s continued growth in Indonesia, expand into regional markets, and help it enter new business lines.
Huawei earmarks US$100M for investments in APAC startups over 3 years
It’ll focus on developing startup hubs in four new markets: Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines; This investment will be made as part of Huawei’s The Spark programme; The Spark programme is already being run in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Traveloka exploring US listing via SAPC deal, looks to raise US$400M
As per a Bloomberg report, the SPAC is backed by Peter Thiel; The deal will value the combined entity at about US$5B; DealStreetAsia earlier reported that Traveloka was in advanced talks with Bridgetown Holdings.
Customer engagement platform MoEngage raises US$32.5M Series C+
Investors include Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Matrix Partners; MoEngage provides marketers and product managers with consumer behaviour data and the ability to act on those insights to engage customers across web, mobile, email, social, and messaging channels.
Vietnam’s e-commerce delivery startup Loship raises US$12M
Lead investors are BAce Capital and the direct investment unit of Sun Hung Kai & Co; Skype co-founder’s MetaPlanet and Wealth Well (Saudi Arabia), and Prism Ventures (Singapore), also joined; Loship will use the money to expand into new regions, and grow its B2B delivery offering for small F&B businesses and mom-and-pop shops.
Asian tech startups drawing looks from hungry investors
Crackdowns on Chinese startups are likely to make global investors look elsewhere and bolster the share prices of other companies in the region. But this coming-of-age moment is still missing a crucial ingredient: monetisation.
Equity, fund management platform Quotabook raises US$5M
Investors include Carta Ventures, Elefund, Draper Associates, and Goodwater Capital; It helps founders organise and simplify equity including cap tables, equity rewards and valuation on its platform, where such data is automatically laid out for their investors in a view to tracking portfolio’s growth and performance.
Singapore B2B sales platform Nektar.ai raises US$6M
Investors are B Capital Group, 3One4 Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners; The latest round of funding takes the total seed amount raised by the startup to US$8.1M; Nektar.ai compares its AI-powered guided selling solution to customer relationship management systems like Salesforce.
Singapore’s Ohmyhome bags US$5M from Swettenham Blue
The proptech platform will use the money to develop a data-matching tech that fast-tracks closing of property deals; It operates on a hybrid model — DIY platform and fully-fledged agency services; Ohmyhome is planning to launch its Series B funding round next year.
Indonesian fintech Ayoconnect raises US$5M pre-Series B led by VC firm AAVCF4 PF1 LP
Other backers are Black’s Link Investment, The Next Unicorn Fund, Patamar Fund, and Mandiri Capital; The fintech startup connects bill providers with online and offline channel partners and financial institutions, so end consumers can pay their bills more seamlessly within its network.
Astronaut acquires Indonesia’s POPSkul
Astronaut enables companies to identify the right candidates from larger candidate pools whereas POPSkul enables people the opportunity to “get certified fast”, especially during the pandemic; With this acquisition, Astronaut will be integrating skills certificates into the candidate profiles on the Astronaut platform.
Sequoia India leads Thai SaaS firm FlowAccount’s US$4m series A round
The online invoicing firm offers cloud-based bilingual business solutions to help freelancers, small-business owners, and accountants in Thailand manage their accounting, payroll, and expense tasks on a single platform; FlowAccount said there are currently 50K customers.
Singapore edutech startup Flying Cape nets US$1.5M
Investors are Start-up O, EduSpaze, and undisclosed angels; The startup will use the money to scale its operations across China and SEA; Flying Cape helps parents understand their children’s learning styles, hobbies, and passions; It also helps them identify appropriate classes for their children through tailored suggestions made by its proprietary SMART diagnostic assessment tools.
IoT-enabled coffee machine startup Morning raises US$1.27M
Investors include zVentures (lead), The Lo & Behold Group, and Zopim founders; The money will go towards strengthening Morning’s international expansion; The machine uses precision brewing features, combined with a recipe-driven ecosystem, to deliver every cup of coffee precisely as the roaster intended it to taste.
Ghost kitchen startup MadEats makes it into Y Combinator;
The foodtech venture also disclosed that it is currently in talks to raise a 7-figure USD in seed funding. The firm has already raised one-fourth of this amount from some angel investors and former YC alumni, and it target to close this round by September.
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