The exciting edtech ecosystem

Also: Cars24, Xinchao Media, Advance Intelligence Group, and more startups secure funding. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Hello {NAME} , We had quite a bit of fun filming [the latest episode of Tech in Asia Explains]( where we take a deep dive into the edtech scene. This time, we took a more creative approach to making the intro and outro: We decorated the set with books (because education LOL), and even managed to sneak in an academics-related pun or two. But even without all that good stuff, the topic itself is an exciting one. Though the edtech sector isn’t really that new - top players like Byju’s, Ruangurru, and Zenius have been around since the 2010s - it has seen rapid growth over the past two years. In Southeast Asia alone, edtech adoption increased more than 3x between 2019 and 2020. And that momentum seems set to continue. This week, the only M&A came from the edtech scene, with India-based Eupheus Learning acquiring local edtech firm ClassKlap for US$19 million. And it’s likely that we’ll see more deals coming from the sector in the weeks to come. 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 took place recently. -- Nathaniel  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY 🇮🇳 Cars24: The Indian used-car marketplace banked US$450 million from DST Global, Exor Seeds, Falcon Edge Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund, and Tencent in its series F funding round. 🇨🇳 Xinchao Media: The China-based adtech firm got US$400 million in strategic investment from JD.com. 🇸🇬 Advance Intelligence Group: The Singapore-based AI firm [closed a US$400 million series D funding round]( from Gaorong Capital, EDBI, Northstar Group, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Vision Plus Capital, and Warburg Pincus. 🇮🇱 Lightricks: The Israeli video-editing app bagged US$130 million in series D funding from Altshuler Shaham, ClalTech, Goldman Sachs, Greycroft Partners, Hanaco Ventures, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services, Insight Partners, Migdal Insurance, and Shavit Capital. 🇲🇾 Socar Malaysia: The Malaysian car-sharing app [raised US$55 million in series B money]( from Eastbridge Partners and Sime Darby Berhad. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [76 deals worth over US$2.1 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&A'S 🇮🇳 Eupheus Learning, an India-based business-to-business edtech company, acquired local edtech firm ClassKlap for US$19 million.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  STARTUPS THAT ARE RAISING FUNDS Fundraising is hard. To make things slightly easier, we’ve compiled this list of fundraising startups for our subscribers. Do you run a startup that’s raising at the moment or know someone who does? Sign your company up for listing [here](. 🇵🇰 Lettus Kitchens is a Pakistani startup that’s building a network of cloud kitchens to improve product distribution of food brands looking to scale their online deliveries virtually. 🇸🇬 Pawjourr is an online marketplace based in Singapore that connects brands and advertisers with content creators in the pets industry. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A pitch deck that caught 500 Startups’ attention Almabase, a US-based alumni management software firm, uses community engagement and data to make it easier for educational institutions to track and manage information on graduates in their alumni network. The platform used [this pitch deck]( to secure seed funding from 500 Startups. The deck is clean and introduces the business concept right on the cover slide. It supports all facts with attributions from various media portals and visualizes data using pie charts.  2️⃣ A real estate platform used this pitch deck to raise US$10 million Opendoor is a US-based digital platform that makes real estate-related transactions easier for home sellers and property buyers. It used [this pitch deck]( to land US$10 million in series A money from Y Combinator and Khosla Ventures. The deck states upfront what the company does while establishing its core team’s credibility by highlighting their expertise on the second slide. It then addresses pain points that Opendoor aims to solve via a three-step digital solution.  3️⃣ This pitch deck helped a digital workspace startup raise 500 Startups funding Mural is a digital workspace that enables users to create diagrams, flow charts, and maps alongside teammates, clients, and customers. The US-based firm used [this pitch deck]( to secure series A funding at a 500 Startups Demo Day. The deck lays out Mural’s annual recurring sales and revenue right at the beginning and then highlights some of its prominent clients before unveiling the visual solution that it has developed. 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]( | [Southeast Asia](  List of top-funded startups in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Israel]( | [Japan]( | [Hong Kong]( | [Singapore]( | [South Korea]( | [Vietnam](  List of largest exits in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Singapore]( | [Southeast Asia](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ A futurist’s approach to change The best time to prepare for change is before it happens - waiting to react to change could have severe consequences. But how do you know when change is coming? [This Harvard Business Review article]( delves into four steps business leaders can take to prepare their organizations to thrive amid constant change.  2️⃣ Why does there seem to be an endless pool of VC money? Barry Ritholtz, the founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management, has observed that capital seems to be flowing all around and new technologies seem to be popping up every day. He ponders the transformative nature of venture funding and the challenge of seeing when too much capital can distort valuations, reduce expected returns, and foment bubbles in [this blog post](.  3️⃣ How top startup leaders run executive meetings It takes a lot more than a lot of charisma to run a great meeting. A lot of effort goes into the planning. After all, a good executive meeting strengthens the bonds of the leadership team, uncovers mission-critical problems facing the business, and carves out plans for the future. [This First Round Review piece]( takes advice from leaders of top startups on how to run a successful executive meeting.  4️⃣ Lessons from bootstrapping and getting acquired When’s the right time to sell your company? How do you know how much it should sell for? Two years after her bootstrapped startup was acquired, Janine Sickmeyer, now a VC, tweeted about her experience and her answer to these questions in [this tweet thread](.  5️⃣ KPMG vs VC Redditor u/Satvikbabu asked the r/venturecapital community for their thoughts on whether to join KPMG or the VC firm he is currently interning at. Unsurprisingly, most community members advised him to go with the VC - it is a VC subreddit, after all. Read the full discussion [here](. [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 Nathaniel Fetalvero. It’s edited by Arpit Nayak. Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554