Die, try, then try again

Also: Acronis, ElasticRun, YiAutos, and more companies raised money this week. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Hello {NAME} I’d recently picked up Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on Xbox and it’s been… tough. I play a ninja in the game, fighting against all manner of warriors who have their own attack styles. The only similarity between them is that I’ve died at their hands at least once. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. While watching me play, my dad asked why I bother if I’m so bad at it that I lose multiple times in the tutorial. (It’s his ever-loving way of saying, “Get good!”) But with every loss, I learn. And in every fight, I try something new, pivoting my approach until I eventually conquer my foe. It’s not unlike the grind of being an entrepreneur, as evidenced by [our story of Indian gaming company Nazara Technologies](. Startup founders can go weeks, months, or even years without seeing results. But if they keep at it long enough and learn from the mistakes they make along the way, they might make it - just like Nazara did. 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 and M&As that recently took place.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY 🇸🇬 Acronis: The Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity firm [bagged US$250 million]( in late-stage funding from CVC Capital Partners. 🇮🇳 ElasticRun: The Indian micro-retail commerce startup [raised a series D funding round]( worth US$75 million from Avataar Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and Prosus Ventures. 🇨🇳 YiAutos: The Chinese online car marketplace scored US$70 million in series C money from BlueRun Ventures, GGV Capital, K2VC, Susquehanna International Group, and Sky9 Capital. 🇮🇩 Bibit: The Indonesia-based robo-advisory startup [got US$65 million in early-stage funding]( from AC Ventures, East Ventures, Harvard Management Company, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Tencent. 🇮🇱 IRP Systems: The Israeli company raised US$31 million in a series C funding round from Altshuler Shaham Group, Carasso Motors, Clal Insurance, Samsung Venture Investment, and Shlomo Group. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [90 deals worth over US$1.59 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&A'S 🇮🇱 US agricultural services company Valmont Industries acquired Israeli-based agritech firm Prospera Technologies for US$300 million. 🇨🇳 Software-as-a-service platform Mobvista has announced that [it will acquire]( China-based Reyun, a third-party mobile measurement and marketing technology company, for US$231.8 million. 🇰🇷 South Korean one-stop human resources platform Commonspace was acquired by local recruiting platform Wanted for an undisclosed sum. 🇰🇷 Buster, a digital game marketing firm based in South Korea, was acquired by advertising tech company ADOP for an undisclosed amount of money. 🇮🇩 Indonesia-headquartered e-payments startup LinkAja announced that it had acquired local peer-to-peer lending firm iGrow for an undisclosed amount of money. 🇻🇳 FPT Corporation, Vietnam’s largest technology and IT services group, [has acquired]( software-as-a-service startup Base.vn for an undisclosed sum. 🇹🇼 The family office of Joseph Phua, managing partner of Turn Capital and co-founder of livestreaming app 17Live, [has acquired]( Taiwanese blockchain firm Dapp Pocket for an undisclosed amount.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ This educational esports platform’s pitch deck got 500 Startups’ attention Founded in 2018, GamerzClass touts itself as the “Netflix for gamers,” offering a platform for gaming videos and tutorials featuring professional esports athletes. It used [this pitch deck]( at a 500 Startups Demo Day to receive US$150,000 in pre-seed funding. The deck begins by pointing out the problems in esports and then shows GamerzClass’ solutions. It also explains how the company’s user and revenue traction details keep growing over time.  2️⃣ An accounting SaaS firm secured 500 Startups funding with this pitch deck Backstartup is a Colombian startup that offers solutions to help small businesses better understand their numbers, save money, and make guided decisions. It used [this pitch deck]( at a 500 Startups demo day to help secure its first seed round of funding. The deck starts by introducing Backstartup’s software-as-a-service solutions and details the company’s future plans.  3️⃣ Singapore-based Credify used this pitch deck to raise its seed round The fintech startup presented [this pitch deck]( to secure US$1 million in outside funding from Beenext and Deepcore, an AI-focused incubator backed by SoftBank, in January 2020. The deck begins by stating issues in digital financial services and then introduces Credify’s core technologies and how each can address those issues. You can find more [killer pitch decks here]( including those produced by Shopback, Bukalapak, LinkedIn, Coinbase, and Revolut. And if you want to feature your startup's pitch deck, you can [do so here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES  Lists of most active investors in the region [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Singapore](  List of top-funded startups in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Hong Kong]( | [Singapore]( | [Vietnam](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ An automobile company committing to an eco-friendly future? General Motors chair and CEO Mary Barra went on HBR IdeaCast to talk about the leadership lessons she’d picked up over the years as well as the future of the automobile industry - which she thinks it’s electric vehicles. Listen to [the podcast]( to hear the full conversation.  2️⃣ VCs vs the stock market According to Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, half of all venture capital firms outperform the stock market, in contrast to the popular belief that only the top quartile or decile of VCs can produce good returns. Read his thoughts on the matter on [his blog](.  3️⃣ Tips from Shopify on how to hire a VP of engineering Hiring is tough. Hiring a vice president of engineering is even tougher, especially when not many people can tell you what such a person actually does. Shopify’s VP of engineering Farhan Thawar shares some advice on how to recruit for the role with [First Round Review](.  4️⃣ Got a hybrid presentation to give? Read this first Everyone knows that public speaking is an entirely different game from a Zoom presentation, but how do you prepare for a hybrid presentation? [This Harvard Business Review piece]( discusses some top tips for nailing a presentation to a combined audience of in-person and remote attendees.  5️⃣ Why early-stage investors want their portfolio companies to keep raising money Redditor u/PictureSharp questioned the r/venturecapital community why investors don’t push their portfolio companies to pursue sources of capital that don't dilute their shares. Other users put forward their thoughts, with some ridiculing the notion that investors should act that selfishly and others basically saying,”It depends.” Check out [the thread]( for the full discussion. [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. Was this forwarded to you? You can read this everyday when you sign up [here](. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi. Today’s edition was written by Nathaniel Fetalvero. It’s edited by Eileen C. Ang. Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554