What is essential is invincible against the funding winter

Byju’s, Hithium Energy Storage, Balaan, and more companies raised funding 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} When three of the top funding deals this past week hit US$200 million and above, it’s sometimes hard to fathom that we’re in a funding and tech winter. If you take a closer look, though, you’ll see that some of the deals involve the edtech and energy industries - these speak to their indispensability in our lives. Like I’ve written before in another newsletter, if I ever put up my own company, it’ll be in a field that addresses the real needs of human beings such as food, sustainability, education. But of course, I’m only musing - just let me enjoy feeling right for once. 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. -- Winston  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  🇮🇳 Byju’s: The Indian edtech firm raised [US$250 million from the Qatar Investment Authority]( the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar. The capital infusion came just days after the company announced that it was laying off 2,500 employees or 5% of its total workforce. 🇨🇳 Hithium Energy Storage: The Chinese firm, which specializes in lithium-ion battery core materials, has closed a US$227.9 million series B funding round. Investors include Chengtun Mining Group, FengHe Group, and Matrix Partners China, among others. 🇰🇷 Balaan: Based in South Korea, the online luxury boutique bagged US$200 million in series C funding from Shinhan Capital, DAOL Investment, and Company K Partners. 🇮🇩 Sociolla: The Indonesia-based beauty startup received [over US$60 million]( in an investment round led by Temasek and L Catterton. Existing backers such as East Ventures and Jungle Ventures also participated in the fundraise. 🇯🇵 TrendExpress: The Japanese firm, which provides services such as social big data marketing, demand forecast, and inbound consumption analysis,has closed a US$26.4 million series C round. Investors include Sapphire Capital, Dimension, AirTrip, and DNX Ventures, among others. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [112 deals worth over US$1.1 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As 🇮🇳 PrepOnline, an Indian learning platform, has been acquired by edtech firm PhysicsWallah for an undisclosed amount. 🇮🇳 PhysicsWallah has also acquired Altis Vortex, one of India’s leading publishers and distributors of learning materials. 🇸🇬 Love Bonito, a direct-to-consumer retailer headquartered in Singapore, has [taken a majority stake]( in local activewear brand Butter as it evolves its female-focused ecosystem and roster of brands. The D2C company did not disclose the size of the investment. 🇸🇬 Singapore-based PropertyGuru [has acquired local home services platform Sendhelper]( for an undisclosed sum. Founded by Rupam Biswas, Bogdan Metehoiu, and Max Loosen in 2018, Sendhelper connects homeowners with verified service providers, who offer repair, air conditioner maintenance, cleaning, and other services.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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](. 🇸🇬 Waffle is a Singapore-headquartered customer relationship management platform focused on helping food and retail businesses via its point-of-sale solutions. 🇸🇬 Auptimate is an online platform that helps professional investors design, launch, and operate investment instruments such as special purpose vehicles, variable capital companies, and funds. 🇸🇬 HyperGlade is an NFT company that aims to democratizedigital content creation and enabling Web2 companies to enter the Web3 space. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A Singapore digital media firm snagged US$10 million with this deck TotallyAwesome curates media inventory used to safely engage those under 18 throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It used [this pitch deck]( to secure a US$10 million seed round. The deck comprehensively covers TotallyAwesome’s suite of solutions and their use cases, and then details important metrics such as the company’s addressable audience and monthly active users. 2️⃣ This deck helped a crypto tax firm coin US$1.5 million KoinX is an India-based startup that plugs into crypto exchanges to make tax filing easier. The platform automatically calculates capital gains and creates downloadable tax reports for its users’ crypto income. Simple and concise, [this deck]( helped KoinX raise US$1.5 million in seed funding by showcasing the solutions it offers. 3️⃣ This Vietnamese fintech firm’s pitch deck helped it bank US$10 million in debt funding F88 is a secured lending firm that aims to bring affordable and instant access to financial services MSMEs as well as the unbanked and underbanked. It used [this pitch deck]( to obtain debt funding this year. The deck starts with a business highlights slide that explains the company’s key details. It then goes through F88’s corporate culture, values, and mission, plus the track record of its corporate development and product offerings.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 What attracts top tech talent? A common problem that big and small face is bringing in talent. [This survey by Bain & Company]( sheds some light on the reasons why top tech talent choose to stay in a job or to move on. 2️⃣ Regulation can lead to innovation Financial regulation is generally a headwind for innovation - it adds red tape that just slows things down, right? However, the Brazilian fintech scene is presenting a surprising exception to the rule. [Read about it in this post]( on the A16z website. 3️⃣ The creativity supply chain As someone who works in partnership content, I’m acutely aware of the sometimes-blurry line between the creative part and the business side of the job. Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Michael Mignano [breaks creativity down]( into four buckets - supply, demand, incentives, and “superpowers” - an interesting way to frame the discussion. 4️⃣ Who are the non-VCs in VC firms? Reddit user u/aboutalanah posed a question to r/venturecapital: “Anyone work at a VC in a non-investing role?” Several interesting answers popped up, with product managers, analysts, and “platform heads” elaborating on what their jobs entail. Check out [the whole thread]( to take a peek behind the scenes. 5️⃣ No faking Impostor syndrome is common among people working in the tech and startup world - me included. [This Harvard Business Review article]( offers some tips for managers that could be helpful in combating impostor syndrome in their team.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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