Blockchain gaming is no longer the future - it’s now

Animoca Brands, DST, Green Labs, and more startups raised funding this week. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Hello {NAME} , A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about blockchain technology and how it had the potential to be the [future of the gaming industry](. Back then, blockchain games had yet to hit the mainstream. Axie Infinity was still a fairly new player, and when you mentioned “blockchain games,” what most people had in mind was Cryptokitties - not exactly the best example to use to argue for such games. The situation has changed tremendously since then. Even my dad’s 55-year-old friend is familiar with the name Axie Infinity, and more blockchain gaming firms have emerged and achieved some measure of success. One of the leading players in the field is Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. This week, it [raised US$359 million in late-stage money]( pushing its valuation up to US$5 billion. The industry’s come a long way, and I’m excited just thinking about how much more it will evolve in another couple of years. 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. -- Nathaniel --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY 🇭🇰 Animoca Brands: The Hong Kong-headquartered gaming firm [secured US$359 million in late-stage funding]( from C Ventures, Delta Fund, Gemini Frontier Fund, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited, Kingsway Capital, L2 Capital Partners, Liberty City Ventures, Mirae Asset Financial Group, Pacific Century Group, ParaFi Capital, and Provident Growth. 🇨🇳 DST: The Chinese logistics startup bagged US$200 million in series D funding from CICC Capital and IKEA International Group. 🇰🇷 Green Labs: The South Korean digital agriculture platform raised US$136 million from BRV Capital Management, SK Square, and Skylake Capital in a series C round. 🇮🇳 Addverb: The India-headquartered robotics firm [scored US$132 million in strategic funding]( from Reliance Retail. 🇻🇳 Con Cung: The Vietnam-based ecommerce firm [got US$90 million]( from Quadria Capital in a late-stage funding round. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [139 deals worth over US$2.4 billion](. --------------------------------------------------------------- M&As 🇮🇳 Cholamandalam Finance acquired Payswiff, a Hyderabad-based online payment gateway startup, for US$60.5 million. 🇮🇳 US-headquartered Thrasio acquired Lifelong Online, a consumer appliances brand based in Gurugram, for an undisclosed sum. 🇮🇳 Indian retail giant Flipkart [acquired local electronics recommerce firm Yaantra]( for an undisclosed sum. 🇮🇳 India-headquartered logistics tech platform Shiprocket [acquired Rocketbox, a local on-demand truck provider and aggregator]( for an undisclosed amount. 🇸🇬 Indian wearables brand boAt acquired Singapore-headquartered IoT startup KaHa for an undisclosed sum. 🇰🇷 South Korea-based AI firm BigInsight acquired Taggers, a local all-in-one performance marketing automation platform, for an undisclosed amount. 🇮🇳 India-headquartered GOAT Brand Labs acquired local women’s fashion and lifestyle brand The Label Life for an undisclosed sum. 🇰🇷 South Korea-based AI firm BigInsight acquired Opinno, a local performance marketing company, 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. Do you run a startup that’s raising at the moment or know someone who does? Sign your company up for listing [here](. 🇻🇳 Fundi is a Vietnam-based one-stop cashback, review, and coupon website. 🇵🇭 ChatGenie is a Manila-headquartered startup that enables businesses to sell their products on the world’s biggest ecommerce marketplaces. 🇮🇩 Gelora.id is a Jakarta-based software-as-a-service firm that enables sports venues to manage facilities and bookings. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A flying taxi startup’s pitch deck helped it land US$1 million in seed funding A developer of electric planes, the ePlane Company aims to make commuting within cities easier, while keeping the price at only 1.5x of current taxi fares. The firm used [this pitch deck]( to secure seed funding last year. The deck immediately lays out The ePlane Company’s business, which seeks to provide high-mileage flying taxis for door-to-door travel in cities. The presentation goes on to outline the company’s vision going forward. 2️⃣ The deck that helped a social gifting app raise US$2.3 million in early-stage funding Giftiicon is an app that makes it more fun to give people presents. Last year, the startup used [this pitch deck]( to raise early-stage funding. The deck begins by introducing Giftiicon’s key members, followed immediately by an explainer video on how the service works. It goes on to reveal details about the company, including market projections and positioning maps. 3️⃣ An AI business services startup scored US$16 million in series A money with this pitch deck Osome offers AI-backed online accounting services to small and medium-sized enterprises. The Singapore-based startup used [this pitch deck]( to raise US$16 million in series A money last year. The deck is well designed and contains comprehensive content on the business. It also explains the technological shifts across industries and how Osome’s services can bridge the knowledge gap. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 How to become a better listener Got a New Year's resolution for 2022 yet? If you’re looking for something to improve, consider trying to become a better listener. Listening is crucial in the startup setting, especially in situations where urgency is paramount. [This First Round Review piece]( details the art of becoming a better listener and how that can lead to concrete benefits to you and your team. 2️⃣ Internal barriers to deep tech corporate venturing As investments in deep-tech startups rapidly grow, corporate VC is emerging as a large source for their funding. However, despite the benefits, deep tech corporate venturing comes with high hurdles. [This piece on MIT Sloan Management Review]( discusses those challenges and how chief innovation officers can tackle them. 3️⃣ Strategies to deal with inflation Companies often tackle inflation by raising prices, accepting smaller margins, or reducing product costs - often at the expense of quality. But there’s a better, more sophisticated strategic response that companies could employ, according to [this Harvard Business Review article](. 4️⃣ A bird’s eye view of crypto VC Crypto venture capital can seem like a tough field to get into, and it’s one of the most competitive and cutthroat subsects of the venture industry. However, there’s a framework that explains the different types of funds within the space. [This blog post]( outlines the three types of crypto VC funds you may encounter. 5️⃣ The unbundling of venture capital Once upon a time, VC funds were thought of as “The Firm”: amorphous and harsh judges that threw cash at you if you were lucky. As the startup scene became more dynamic, VCs began to be modularized into fiefdoms and have evolved even further. [This blog post]( dives into how the VC world is changing and what we can expect of it in the future. Did these eye-popping figures shock you? Share this with a friend who would enjoy this week’s funding news as much as you do. 😉 If you liked today’s edition, give us some feedback [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 Eileen C. Ang. Copyright © 2022 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894