An Indian ecommerce major is the star of this week's fundrasing

Flipkart, Chaitin Tech, Nihon Agri, and more raised funds this week. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Saturday VC newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](.  --------------------------------------------------------------- Hello {NAME} I remember reading somewhere that humans are really bad at understanding relative scale, especially when it comes to large numbers. Usually, this applies when we talk about how much money someone has or is getting. Think about it - hearing that someone is getting a couple hundred million dollars sounds like a lot, especially on an individual level. Then you hear about people like Jeff Bezos who’s worth around US$200 billion, and there’s a good chance you’d probably lump both of them together as “large amounts of money.” In actual fact, there’s a humongous difference between the two figures. Put it this way: The difference between a couple hundred million dollars and Bezos’ net worth is about the same as Bezos’ net worth itself. Not only that, but a million seconds comes up to roughly 11 days. A billion seconds? Approximately 31 years. I think it’s important to keep this in mind especially when we look at some of the startups that have raised funds, so that we can better understand the actual difference in scale that some companies operate at. You can find all other important investment deals that happened in the last few days in our [weekly funding news wrap-up](. Let’s dive into the biggest deals that recently took place. -- Jonathan  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  IN Indian ecommerce major Flipkart has raised US$950 million in strategic investments from Google and Walmart. CN Chaitin Tech, a Chinese security startup, has secured US$137 million through a strategic investment by Shanghai International Group. JP Japanese agritech startup Nihon Agri has received US$26.9 million in series C money from Global Brain, Yamatane Corporation, Towa Investment, and The Norinchukin Bank, among others. AE Grubtech, a software-as-a-service provider based in the United Arab Emirates, has netted US$15 million for its series B and series A extension rounds. Investors in the round include Addition, Hambro Perks, and Jahez. AU Australian healthtech firm Updoc has gotten US$13.3 million in its latest funding round from Bailador Technology Investments. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [79 deals worth over US$1.4 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As  PH JuanTax, a B2B tax platform from the Philippines, has been [acquired by Beppo]( for an undisclosed amount. IN Based in India, Zenifi is a fintech firm that specializes in healthcare lending. It’s been [acquired by BharatX]( for an undisclosed amount.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  STARTUPS THAT ARE RAISING FUNDS Fundraising is hard. To make things slightly easier, we’ve compiled this list of fundraising startups for our subscribers. We are launching a [new feature]( to send fundraising startups directly to investors’ inboxes. There’s no better time to list your startup, and you can do so [here](. SG This Singaporean startup is a biotech company looking to enable better drug discovery. SG A Singapore startup is offering vertical aeroponic gardening systems. VN This Vietnamese edtech startup focuses on helping students improve their tech skills. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  BEHIND THE GLASSWALL Fundraising often involves reaching out to multiple contacts, many of whom founders might not have dealt with before. To provide some transparency to this process, we created Glasswall, a platform for founders to give feedback and recommendations on investors. Check out the full list [here](. - ✅︎ “Kopital rejected us initially but gave us a constructive feedback. Our valuation was too high, and it would pressure us in the short term and prevent us from having the freedom of making mistakes. They were also transparent about their shortcomings in terms of not being an expert in our sector.” - [Read more]( - ❌ ”Poor process management and internal communication. We repeated the same conversation three times. Overall poor team and negative experience.” - [Read more]( - ✅︎ “Very on point with questions and advice. They don't "tell" what to do, instead they ask many critical questions along the way and make suggestions. Sometimes from their questioning we realize what we lacking and have to do.” - [Read more](  --------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS HAPPENING You can also check out a curated list of trending tech events [over here]( and Tech in Asia’s signature events [here](.  [Product Development Conference (Jakarta, 25-26 June 2024)]( Attention! Attendees from 500+ emerging startups, such as Sirclo, Gravel, Fazpass, Fazz, Ayoconnect, and more are attending PDC 2024! Last chance to get 25% off your PDC ticket; this offer ends on June 6th. [Snap up your ticket]( now or risk FOMO [Tech in Asia x Airwallex Startup Night on June 19]( Forget the elevator pitches and forced smiles of typical networking events. Held on June 19, Tech in Asia x Airwallex Startup Night is about one thing: forging genuine connections that fuel real growth. This isn't for everyone, though. We're handpicking a select group of ambitious founders and startup leaders who are ready to move beyond the hype and achieve real impact. [Register for an invite today!]( --------------------------------------------------------------- EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES Lists of most active investors in the region [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Singapore]( | [Southeast Asia]( List of top-funded startups in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Israel]( | [Japan]( | [Hong Kong]( | [Singapore]( | [South Korea]( | [Vietnam](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ That double-edge can hurt With great power comes great responsibility… unless you want to go around using it to scam people. That’s the danger as AI gets more advanced, with it potentially being used to grow the quantity and quality of phishing attacks. Read more about it [here](. 2️⃣ Meme on this Remember the GameStop frenzy back in 2021? It recently almost happened again when the original person who started it began posting again on X (formerly Twitter) after a three-year hiatus. Will meme stocks like that become a bigger part of the fintech landscape? Check out [this podcast episode]( to find out. 3️⃣ I, Robot Chatbots are one of the biggest use cases when it comes to AI voice agents. Since the market is awash with different solutions, [here’s a comprehensive breakdown]( of what to look out for. 4️⃣ Reading between the lines [This post on Medium]( raises an interesting question for sure: Can good investors spot great startups even when the founders aren’t great at pitching? After all, some companies may be founded by more technically gifted people, even though they’re not that great at in-person interactions. Read the full article to see what the author thinks. 5️⃣ My precious Quality due diligence is a staple for any VC worth its salt, but what happens when another investor asks you to share your findings? Is there some kind of etiquette to follow? Some commenters on Reddit [chime in]( with their thoughts.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. You can also break our hearts and remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over [here](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi. Today’s edition was written by Jonathan Chew. It’s edited by Dhania Putri Sarahtika. Copyright © 2024 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894