Ecosystem Roundup: J&T Express raises US$2.5B ahead of IPO, RWDC Industries bags US$95.1M, #MeToo in SEA startup scene

#MeToo in startups in SEA and the silence surrounding it is deafening
Sexual abuses often go unreported because many victims choose silence to avoid possible backlash and retribution from the harassers.

Indonesian courier startup J&T raises US$2.5B ahead of Hong Kong IPO: Reuters
Boyu Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia China, and Tencent Holdings also participated; This brings its valuation to US$20B; The fundraising by J&T comes as it seeks to expand in China and Latin America.

Robert Downey Jr.-backed RWDC Industries completes US$95.1M Series B2 round
The biodegradable alternative to plastic firm will use the funding to expand its PHA production capacity in its plant located in Athens in the US state of Georgia to 50 kiloton per year and develop a production facility in Singapore.

Grab injects Series C funding into Indonesia’s e-investment platform Bareksa
Through this partnership, Bareksa will gain access to Grab users and partners, offering them investment opportunities with payments handled by OVO; In 2019, Bareksa had raised Series B funding from OVO.

Indonesian stock trading platform Stockbit to acquire local brokerage firm Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas
The acquisition will enable Mahakarya’s users to open stock accounts and trade in the Indonesian Stock Exchange via the Stockbit app; Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas has been Stockbit’s brocking partner since September and will now be rebranded to Stockbit Sekuritas.

Singapore’s Hepmil Media secures US$10M to expand e-sports, gaming network
Investors include Quest Ventures, Pavilion Capital and Bent Pixels; Hepmil, which owns SGAG, MGAG, PGAG and a digital creator agency, also plans to expand into Thailand and Vietnam in 2022.

Pintek raises US$7M Series A to provide financial services to Indonesia’s education community
Investors include Kaizenvest, Heritas Capital, Blue7, and Earlsfield Capital; To date, Pintek claims to have supported 2,750+ education institutions, 100 education MSMEs to reach more than 650,000 students.

Social commerce startup Desty adds US$5M to pre-series A kitty led by East Ventures
Other backers are Jungle Ventures, Fosun RZ and January Capital; Desty, founded by ex-BAce Capital managing partner Mulyono Xu, is a digital platform for merchants, influencers, and creators to build a single online destination to promote and sell their products.

Ex-YG Entertainment execs’ Indonesian home care services firm OKHOME raises US$3M
Investors include POSCO Venture Capital, A Ventures, ES Investor, Honest Ventures, and Enlight Ventures; OKHOME provides services such as general cleaning, disinfection, and air conditioner management across Jakarta and Surabaya.

Plot of digital land sold for US$2.3M in Axie Infinity
According to the company, it’s the largest amount of money ever paid for a single piece of digital real estate; The amount surpasses the US$1.5M deal for nine plots of digital land in the play-to-earn game, which happened in February.

SG businessman-led SPAC 8i Acquisition 2 nets US$86M in US listing
This is over US$10M more than what it initially planned to raise on the US exchange; James Tan Meng Dong is the CEO and director of the blank-cheque firm; Incorporated as a British Virgin Islands business company, 8i Acquisition will invest in Asian companies with enough foothold to scale across multiple countries.

Binance eyes funding from sovereign wealth funds
The stake sale comes after Binance was issued a warning by the MAS in September for providing payment services and soliciting business from Singaporeans without having a license to do so; Since then, the crypto exchange has restricted its services in Singapore.

SG autonomous vehicle startup MooVita bags Series A funding
Investors include Yinson Holdings, SMRT Ventures, 1Derlife Growth and SEEDS Capital; MooVita is currently developing a component-based driverless software solution, which can transform various vehicle types into autonomous vehicles.

Indonesian mobile coffee firm Jago Coffee bags US$250K
Investors are Beenext, Prasetia Dwidharma, and Hidenori Izaki; The company plans to use the fresh funds to increase its number of mobile carts from 20 to 280 by next year; It also wants to pilot new product categories outside coffee with other food and beverage brands.

Vietnam’s internet economy to hit US$220B by 2030
Since COVID-19 reappeared in the first half of this year, the country has added 8 million digital consumers, of whom more than half come from non-metro areas; It is forecasted that the country’s digital economy will see a growth rate of 31% this year over the same period last year, reaching US$21B.

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