Ecosystem Roundup: Grab shares slump on Nasdaq; Carsome raising US$200M; AC Ventures closes US$205M Fund III

Grab slumps in US debut after record SPAC deal
Grab’s shares rose as much as 21% minutes after the listing before retreating to trade 23% lower at US$8.51 by 1834 GMT; The listing comes after Grab’s April agreement to merge with Altimeter Capital Management’s SPAC and raise US$4.5B, including US$750M from Altimeter.

AC Ventures hits final close of Fund III at US$205M to back early-stage Indonesian startups
Backers include IFC and Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings’s Disrupt AD; Fund III has completed 30 out of the 35 target investments and expects to deploy a total of US$100M by the end of 2021.

Temasek’s SeaTown Holdings said to be leading Carsome’s US$200M pre-IPO round
The used car marketplace is likely to wrap up this round within the next 1-2 months; Carsome was last reported to be actively weighing its options for a US public listing in 2022.

Interactive learning platform LingoAce nabs US$160M to scale its teams in US, Europe, SEA
Investors are Sequoia India, Owl Ventures, Shunwei Capital, and SWC Global; This round comes a few months after LingoAce bagged a US$55M Series B round, led by Tiger Global and Owl Ventures.

Play Ventures launches new US$75M fund blockchain gaming fund
Named Play Future Fund seeks to invest in a new generation of metaverse entrepreneurs building at the emerging intersection of gaming and web3; The firm has already invested in 3 firms — Community Gaming, ReNFT, and GuildFi.

Neobank YouTrip raises US$30M from Asian family offices, fintech investors
The new funding will be used to support its expansion plan to the wider SEA market; The company also plans to further expand into the B2B segment; It is set to launch its new corporate credit card YouBiz in Singapore in early 2022, with plans to bring it to five other SEA countries in the next twelve months.

Digital wealth platform Endowus raises US$27M funding
Investors include Prosus Ventures, EDBI, Z Venture Capital, UBS, Singtel Innov8, and Lightspeed; Endowus.com will use the capital to grow in Singapore and across Asia, roll out new products, and enhance its existing platform.

Food Market Hub scores US$8.5M to expand to Indonesia and grow in Singapore, Thailand
Investors include AC Ventures Malaysia, Go-Ventures, SIG, 500 Global, and East Ventures; Food Market Hub automates the purchasing and inventory-tracking process, helping F&B businesses minimise wastage while managing food costs and inventory.

SpeQtral closes US$8.3M round to deliver tamper-proof, computationally uncrackable encryption keys
Lead investor is Temasek-owned Xora Innovation; SpeQtral’s OKD solution uses quantum physics to distribute symmetric encryption keys to firms secure data against present and future threats brought on by advances in computing.

SEEDS Capital, Japanese fund invest in Sentient.io’s Series B extension round
It will use the new funds to scale its business and expand into APAC markets, primarily to fulfil the demand from local and Japanese corporations; The startup enables developers to build AI and data-driven solutions quickly and easily by offering domain-targeted AI and data as API services.

Clean Earth Technologies bags US$7.4M from Strand Hanson Asia for its non-toxic gold recovery solution
Its CleanMining provides an innovative processing technology that eliminates the use of cyanide and mercury in the treatment of precious metal ores, particularly gold; The company has secured two contracts from NuFortune Gold of Australia.

Mobile SaaS platform for social learning Tigerhall raises US$7M led by Monk’s Hill Ventures
The funding will be used to expand its footprint into the US and APAC markets; Tigerhall provides professionals with mobile-first upskilling through personalised content based on ML, user behaviour and a short assessment quiz.

GajiGesa raises US$6.6M pre-Series A to provide earned wage access to underserved workers, SMEs
Investors include MassMutual Ventures, Wagestream, January Capital, Bunda Group, and Smile Group; GajiGesa will use the funds for product development, scaling the business across Indonesia and expansion into other SEA markets.

Qashier raises US$4.7M from Exor to take its smart POS machine to Malaysia
Qashier claims it achieved 10x growth in revenue with over 1,000 merchants adopting the Qashier Smart POS terminal in the last year; In May 2021, it launched QashierEats, a low-cost, all-in-one online ordering platform for F&B merchants.

Sea’s VC arm backs US e-commerce roll-up firm Markai
Markai has raised US$4M in seed from Pear VC, Sea Capital, Signia Venture and others; Markai competes with major names in the e-commerce roll-up industry such as Germany-based Berlin Brands Group.

Hashed co-founder’s social metaverse platform MYTY announces US$3.5M seed funding
Investors are Hashed, Collab+Currency, BITKRAFT Ventures, Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures and SamsungNEXT; MYTY is a decentralised social platform where people can escape the limitations of the physical world using NFT avatars.

SG building design firm Digital Blue Foam launches with US$2M
The startup is also in late-stage talks to close its Series A funding, which will be used to scale up its footprint in SEA, Europe, and the US; The DBF platform is a building design tool made for architects, planners, developers, and educators.

SG co-living operator Casa Mia Coliving nets US$400K from angel investors
Casa Mia provides private bedrooms in ready-to-move shared homes in Singapore; It focuses on young professionals who want to save money and energy while finding and moving into a new house.

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Verticals Based in Singapore Investment Location Stages Series A, Series B, Series C & Above Type of Investment Firm Corporate Venture Capital Investment Range USD 250K – USD 26M Ability to lead

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