ShopBack stashes US$80 million more in IPO war chest

CanSemi, Shubham Housing Development Finance Company, LegalForce, and more startups also raised funding this week. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Hello {NAME} And just like that, we’re halfway through 2022. I don’t know about you, but it feels like the year only began yesterday. Regardless, I hope you’re having a good start to the second half of 2022. One company that’s kicking off its H2 with a bang is Singapore-based ShopBack. It recently [secured US$80 million]( in its latest funding round, and some of that amount will reportedly go into making the shopping and rewards platform IPO-ready. Speaking of which, we recently published an analysis of ShopBack and its upcoming public listing. You can read all about it [here](. 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 🇨🇳 CanSemi: The Chinese semiconductor chipmaker raised US$672 million in strategic investment from CMB International, GAC Capital, GF Securities, Guangdong Semiconductor and Integrated Circuit Industry Fund, Walden International, and Yingke PE. 🇮🇳 Shubham Housing Development Finance Company: The Indian loans provider got US$112 million in series E funding from Asian Development Bank, British International Investment, LeapFrog Investments, and Premji Invest. 🇯🇵 LegalForce: The Japanese firm, which offers an AI-powered platform for reviewing contracts, secured US$110 million in series D money from Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Mizuho Capital, Sequoia Capital China, SoftBank Vision Fund, and World Innovation Lab. 🇸🇬 ShopBack: The Singapore-based shopping and rewards platform [bagged US$80 million in series F funding]( from Asia Partners and January Capital. 🇹🇭 Deliveree: Based in Thailand, the full-service logistics marketplace [scored US$70 million in series C money]( from Gobi Partners, Inspire Ventures, and Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines Ventures. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [141 deals worth over US$2.6 billion](. --------------------------------------------------------------- M&As 🇮🇳 Indian food delivery major Zomato [is set to acquire local quick commerce firm Blinkit]( for US$570 million in an all-stock deal. 🇮🇳 Pine Labs, a merchant payment and lending platform headquartered in India, [acquired local API infrastructure startup Setu]( in a cash-and-stock deal worth between US$70 million and US$75 million. 🇮🇱 Israeli cybersecurity firm XM Cyber acquired local startup Cyber Observer for an undisclosed sum. 🇮🇳 Indian co-living startup Housr acquired Bengaluru-based competitor StayAbode for an undisclosed amount. 🇸🇬 Indian digital lending platform Lentra acquired Singapore-based AI firm TheDataTeam for an undisclosed sum. 🇸🇬 Funding Societies, a Singapore-based digital financing platform, is [set to acquire local fintech firm CardUp](. The deal, whose financial details remain undisclosed, is pending regulatory approvals. 🇰🇷 South Korea-based parenting platform Jellyview was acquired by local pregnancy and childcare app I&na for an undisclosed sum. 🇰🇷 South Korea-based personal vanity operator MakeMeUp was acquired by Leferi, a local beauty influencer business group, for an undisclosed amount. 🇰🇷 Showffle, a live commerce broadcasting platform based in South Korea, was acquired by local competitor Mobidoo for an undisclosed sum. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](. 🇰🇷 The Aprilab is a South Korean startup that sells beauty vitamin supplements online. 🇸🇬 Based in Singapore, ConvInt.ai is an AI-powered conversational assessment platform designed to streamline the hiring process. 🇸🇬 Plotch.ai is a Singapore-headquartered SaaS product that helps small and medium-sized businesses create feature-rich ecommerce websites and mobile apps. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ Flourish Ventures exec breaks down Coinbase’s seed-stage pitch deck In September 2012, Coinbase raised US$600,000 in seed funding. [In this video]( Flourish Ventures global investment advisor Smita Aggarwal breaks down the pitch deck that the the crypto exchange used and shares what she thought was good and what could have been improved on. 2️⃣ InnoVen Capital partner breaks down Revolut’s US$2.3 million seed-stage deck The UK-based fintech unicorn raised US$2.3 million in seed money in 2015. [In this video]( InnoVen Capital Southeast Asia’s Ben Cheah breaks down the deck that Revolut used to secure that round. He also discussed the deck’s pros and cons. 3️⃣ VC breaks down Vajro’s US$8.5 million series A pitch deck The India-headquartered startup, which helps merchants create their own mobile shopping app, raised a US$8.5 million series A funding round in January. [In this video]( Tin Men Capital’s Murli Ravi assessed the deck that Vajro used to raise that round. Ravi, the VC firm’s co-founder and general partner, dove into what the deck did right and what needs work. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Why it’s harder for former startup founders to get a job According to a recent study, ex-startup founders were less likely to receive an interview than non-founders. [This Harvard Business Review piece]( dives into whether being a startup founder makes one less hirable. 2️⃣ Are EVs the future? Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson has been driving electric-powered vehicles since 2014. Though EVs are still an expensive purchase, he believes that could change if policymakers invest in long-term solutions. He makes the case for EVs in [this blog post](. 3️⃣ Venture funding in cybersecurity is dropping Even as the threat of Russian cyberattacks have risen, it seems VCs are losing interest in funding cybersecurity firms. Jonathan Low, co-founder and partner at Predictiv, pens his thoughts on the matter in [this blog post](. 4️⃣ Common questions VCs ask themselves before making a critical investment Redditor and consultant u/BonjoroBear gets a lot of questions from the private equity and VC capital firms that he consults with. So he decided to share the most common queries in [this Reddit post](. 5️⃣ Key traits that every founder should have After a decade in private equity and VC, Twitter user @itsnivt has learned what separates good founders from great ones. Check out his detailed list in [this Twitter thread](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [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