Used cars platform Moladin closes US$42M Series A round
Lead investors are Northstar Group and Sequoia India; Started in 2017 as a motorcycle platform, Moladin pivoted to a used cars marketplace in mid-2021; It operates as a social commerce firm leveraging agents to sell used cars to end consumers.
WIZ.AI bags US$20M in Hillhouse-led round
K3 Ventures, Insignia Ventures, Wavemaker Partners and GGV Capital also co-invested; WIZ.AI creates chatbots for companies in the healthcare, banking and finance, e-commerce, insurance and telecom industries.
‘Absolute decentralisation is unlikely to be the panacea for everything’: Chris Sirise of Saison Capital
‘The growing traction and real use cases have made it undeniable that Web3 as an industry will grow quickly and become enormous’.
ErudiFi raises US$15M debt funding from Helicap to provide affordable tuition instalment plans to students
ErudiFi helps students secure funding for higher education through partnerships with leading universities and vocational schools; It has facilitated more than US$100M in investments that improve access to financing for underbanked populations in SEA.
Temasek unit Heliconia leads digital container haulage platform Haulio’s US$7M Series A round
Co-investors are Ondine Capital, Cornerstone Ventures, FuturePlay, Newtown Partners, and XA Network; Haulio boasts of having onboarded 90% of Singapore’s hauliers and established presences in Indonesia and Thailand, where it has aggregated 3K+ hauliers.
Fintech startup Fraction bags US$3M to turn real estate into fractional NFTs
Investors are East Ventures, Emtek, Thakral, and V Ventures; Fraction allows individuals and companies to invest, sell and manage fractional ownership of anything, from a small stake in a city condominium to managing a private fund, assets and investors.
Xendit ventures in banking space, partners with rural lender BPR Xen
The unicorn has initiated hiring for roles from bank tellers to middle-management level employees for the rural lender; Xendit achieved unicorn status in September 2020 following a US$150M Series C funding led by Tiger Global.
M&A roundup: boAt buys SG startup KaHa, DeClout acquires Ascent Solutions
Ascent Solutions is an IoT smart connectivity firm that provides digital solutions for smart city infrastructure; DeClout invests in, incubates and scales companies to become global or regional market leaders.
Japan’s soccer star Keisuke Honda launches AngelList-like platform for Asia’s startup community
PROTOCOL leverages technology to ease burdens on founders and investors while also boosting the ecosystem as a whole; The platform will be available for people seeking jobs in startups, planning to start a business or investing.
MAS stops crypto platforms from advertising in public
Cryptocurrency firms cannot market their services on public transport, public transport venues, public websites, social media platforms, broadcast and print media, or on physical ATMs; They are also barred from promoting their products via social media influencers and other third-party marketing services.
TW
Fashion resale startup bags US$2.2M in AppWorks-led round
Co-investors are CTBC Venture Capital, B Current Impact Investment, and Taiwan Culture and Creative Angels Investment; PopChill aims to create a sustainable community marketplace enabling users to buy and sell second-hand fashion and apparel.
Taiwan
500 Global joins US$1.7m round of customer service startup Viewabo
Viewabo uses its tech to allow companies to provide customer support services through video and live streaming; Agents can add notes, pause, rotate the stream as per convenience, or save the stream for later review and training.
Why Vietnam is a ripe market for new-age banking
More than 40 per cent of the population in Vietnam is banked and bank cards are seeing accelerating penetration. But there is no dominant winner yet; Vietnam ranks second in the world with 69% of people not having access to financial services and no bank accounts.
Carousell takes on Google, FB with launch of ad platform
Known as Connect, the platform is a recommerce programmatic buying tool that uses demand side-platforms powered by data from transactions and searches on Carousell’s platforms; The new tool provides a full-funnel solution.
Antler India names the 19 students in its new fellowship
The Antler India Fellowship aims to promote entrepreneurship at the university level as a possible career option for students; It offers an equity-free grant of US$20K, mentorship services, and a peer network to turn the startup ideas of students into businesses.
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