Mensa Brands goes big on M&As

Viva Republica, Amber Group, BigBasket, and more raised funds 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} As a gamer, there’s no better feeling than being on a winning streak. You feel like you’re invincible - almost as if you can do no wrong. In some ways, it’s also an ego thing. Winning so often means, more or less, one thing: you’re good, really good. For this week’s investments, it seems like there’s no better firm completing M&As than Mensa Brands. The firm was responsible for three out of the five M&As that took place in Southeast Asia this week. 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  KR Viva Republica (Toss): The South Korean fintech startup, which provides peer-to-peer money transfer services through a mobile application called "Toss," [raised US$405 million]( from Tonic Private Equity during its series G round. HK Amber Group: Based in Hong Kong, the crypto finance firm [bagged US$300 million]( in series C money from Fenbushi Capital. IN BigBasket: The India-based online food and grocery store got a US$200 million strategic investment from Tata Digital. IN BetterPlace: Headquartered in India, this workforce management platform bagged US$40 million from 3one4 Capital, British International Investment (BII), CX Partners, Capria Ventures (Capria Fund), Jungle Ventures, and Unitus Ventures during its series C. SG Doctor Anywhere: The Singaporean telehealth firm [netted US$38.8 million]( in series C funds from Asia Partners, IHH Healthcare, Kamet Capital Partners, Novo Holdings, OSK-SBI Venture Partners, Singapore Economic Development Board, and Square Peg Capital. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [100 deals worth over US$1.3 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As SG Singapore-based Asian Healthcare Specialists, a medical services group, has been [acquired by another local firm]( Doctor Anywhere, in a deal worth US$76.7 million. IN Hypp, an India-based creator management and marketing platform, has been bought by Mensa Brands. Financial details were not disclosed. IN Mensa brands has been rather active this week, also acquiring India-based iDiva, an entertainment startup, for an undisclosed amount. MK Malaysia-based Propay Partners is a payroll and compliance management firm that has been [bought out by UK-based Activpayroll](. Details of the deal were not made available. IN MensXP, a men’s lifestyle brand, has been acquired by - you guessed it - Mensa Brands. Terms of the acquisition, however, were not disclosed. IN Indian-based Algorhythm Tech, a logistics solutions provider, has been taken over by Indian-based Delhivery, 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](. VN Mfast is a Vietnamese agent banking network that aims to democratize financial access to the underserved population. SG Vflowtech is a Singapore-based manufacturer of Battery Energy Storage solutions. ID Nusantics is an Indonesia-based microbial service platform. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ This deck helped a real estate firm net US$15 million for its series B WiredScore is a New York-based real estate company that used this deck to secure a [US$15 million series B round]( from Beringea, Cushman and Wakefield, and Crow Holdings, among others. It starts off by providing strong user metrics for its solution, goes on to explain the problem, and then shows how it can close the gap. 2️⃣ Cake DeFi used this deck to pitch for a SPAC merger We spoke about Cake DeFi last week, but here’s [another deck]( from them. This time around, the deck was used for a potential special purpose acquisition merger. Cake DeFi eventually turned it down, but the deck is still an example of how to lay out product offerings in a neat way while its section about regulatory compliance is a great way to assure investors. 3️⃣ This HR firm scored US$5 million from Sequoia and YC, among others Mesh is a HR platform that aims to be a social network for goals, tasks, recognition, and check-ins within an organization. It used [this deck]( to get US$5 million in seed funding. The deck is visually attractive, using strong, bright colors to capture attention. Having a case study also really helps in selling how useful its solution is. 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 Making an impact as chief of staff It can be tough having a job that primarily involves dealing with others in your organization - stressful even. How do you make sure that you can make an impact the right way? [This article]( on the Harvard Business Review shares 10 tips to get it right. 2️⃣ Would you invest in Skynet? Just kidding (not really). By now, you’ve probably heard all the hype around ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI. If you’re thinking about investing in this cutting-edge tech, [here’s]( a deeper look at what it entails. 3️⃣ Size up your AI options Speaking of AI, the tech as a whole has grabbed a lot of attention lately. It’s bigger than just generative AI and has so many use cases, it’s hard to keep track of all of them. If your company is thinking about taking the leap, perhaps it should consider the factors laid out in [this article]( first. 4️⃣ The co-founder experience If you’ve ever felt a little lonesome or overwhelmed as a co-founder, know that you’re not alone. [This podcast episode]( shares some first-hand accounts from the co-founders of Rothy’s, a direct-to-consumer fashion firm. 5️⃣ It’s not about weakness Asking for help seems like it might be a straightforward thing to do, but when it comes down to the wire, well… Maybe we don’t want to seem like we’re creating more work or causing trouble. In any case, it’s something we shouldn’t shy away from - [here’s]( how to get better at it.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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 Jonathan Chew. It’s edited by Arpit Nayak . Copyright © 2022 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894