Everything, everywhere, all at once in this newsletter

Advance Intelligence Group, CAS Space Exploration, BluSmart, 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} I recently started a new hobby: collecting basketball cards. I’m really not sure why I felt the urge to do so. I joke with my friends that this might be my version of a midlife crisis response, but I’m having a great time so far. I’ve gotten some relatively valuable cards (or “hits” in the hobby’s parlance) such as autographed ones or those of up-and-coming rookies. This adds another hobby to a growing list. I still have a ton of books, shows, and games to get to. But I think it’s a good problem to have, and it’s nice to feel childlike enthusiasm about something, which is hard to experience nowadays as a Responsible Member of SocietyTM. This variety is also present in today’s list of companies that received funding or were involved in M&As. AI-backed financial solutions, spacetech, and DIY meal kits, among others, are all represented. Let’s hope we can all always find new things to get excited about. Have a good weekend, folks. 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  SG Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore-based company that offers AI-backed financial products and services, [closed a US$80 million series E round](. The investors were Northstar Group and Warburg Pincus. CN CAS Space Exploration is a Chinese aerospace technology and spacecraft developer. It secured US$73.5 million in series C funding from Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Capital Operation Holding Group. IN India-based BluSmart Mobility is an electric vehicle ride-hailing platform. It [locked down a US$42 million series B funding round]( from BP Ventures. ID Praktis, an Indonesia-based end-to-end supply chain enabler, helps direct-to-consumer brands in various areas such as raw material purchasing, production, fulfillment, and logistics. The firm [bagged US$20 million in series A money]( from East Ventures, SMDV, and Triputra Group. VN BuyMed, a Vietnamese healthtech startup that operates pharmaceutical marketplace Thuocsi.vn, nabbed US$18 million in a series B round from the US International Development Finance Corporation and UOB Venture Management (UOBVM). This followed the US$33.5 million Buymed received from UOBVM, Smilegate Investment, and Cocoon Capital in February. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [37 deals worth close to US$420 million](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As  IN Kook, an India-based DIY meal kit platform, was acquired by foodtech firm Pluckk for US$1.3 million in a deal that combined cash and equity. IN UCare Health is an Indian firm that offers corporate wellness solutions. It was acquired by consumer benefits marketplace Thriwe for an undisclosed sum. SG Sunbird Bio, a Singapore-based biotech startup focusing on molecular diagnostics, was acquired by Temasek-backed Glympse Bio. The financial details were not disclosed. IN MyAva is an Indian femtech startup that helps women manage chronic health conditions. It was acquired by healthtech firm Bonatra 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](.  IN Black is an Indian-based app that helps users discover independent and purpose-driven brands to shop at. SG MyTravelThru, which hails from Singapore, connects travelers to local transportation providers. MY Jocom is a Malaysian firm that offers a platform for SMEs to list their products to the mass market. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ Bukalapak used this pitch deck to land its seed round The ecommerce major is one of Indonesia’s most prominent tech companies, but it wasn’t always easy to shore up funds. According to Bukalapak co-founder Achmad Zaky, the startup’s [seed round pitch deck]( didn’t go a long way toward raising money. The company only managed to bring in capital about six months after the presentation was created in 2011. 2️⃣ This women-focused firm scored pre-seed funding via this pitch deck Lucy is a mobile app that provides financial support for women entrepreneurs. Officially slated to launch in Singapore in early 2021, the company used [this pitch]( deck to raise a US$365,787 pre-seed round from 18 women investors. The presentation showcases Lucy’s brand characteristics, detailing how the startup is guided by its mission of helping women “who are overlooked, underestimated, and underbanked become unstoppable by leveling the financial playing field.” 3️⃣ An experiential VR startup used this deck to bag US$68 million in series A money Hong Kong-based Sandbox VR offers a futuristic virtual reality experience that allows groups of up to six members to see and physically interact with each other like in the real world. The company used [this pitch deck]( to help it secure US$68 million in its series A round in 2019. The presentation starts with a statement on the disappointments and challenges faced by the VR industry and then chalks out future opportunities in the market.  --------------------------------------------------------------- TECH IN ASIA'S PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2023 Gain valuable insights and strategies for navigating the challenges of product leadership Get ready to learn from the industry’s cream of the crop at the Product Development Conference 2023, which is happening in just a few days. We have great speakers lined up for you including Nihit Nirmal, group chief product officer at Funding Societies Modalku; Manoj Awasthi, chief technology officer at JULO; and Borrys Hasian, a seasoned product design leader. Don’t miss out on their valuable insights - [grab your tickets 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](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ How to handle employee complaints Not all complaints are the same - some are aimed at improving things, while others might even be malicious. [This article from Harvard Business Review (HBR)]( lists down all the types of complaints and shares how managers should deal with them. 2️⃣ The final frontier Spacetech has got to be one of the most interesting verticals, right? Thinking about enabling our exploration beyond the stars is exciting to me, even if it can get very technical really quickly. [In this piece]( Pitchbook hears from European VCs on the startups in the space (no pun intended) to watch. 3️⃣ Fundraising tips In this wintry economy, I don’t know if there really is a surefire way to get funding, but [this article on the Andreessen Horowitz website]( offers 16 “commandments” to do so. Call me a skeptic, but having 16 steps or tips feels way too much to be that useful. But give it a read and let me know what you think. 4️⃣ The holy grail of product-market fit Some companies go for years without finding product-market fit. It sometimes feels like that’s the goal of every company - as if once that’s achieved, everything else will flow easily. [First Round Review]( explores one firm’s journey to that elusive goal. 5️⃣ AI in the middle We often talk about the upstarts and goliaths in business and how they’re responding to the latest innovations, but we can’t forget the mid-sized companies. Obviously, they’re gonna be affected by the generative AI wave as well, and [this HBR piece]( looks at how they can navigate these new waters.  --------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS HAPPENING You can also check out a curated list of trending tech events [over here](. - [Tech in Asia’s Product Development Conference 2023]( from May 16 to May 17 Tech in Asia’s Product Development Conference is back! This year’s edition, which will be held in person in Jakarta, will feature over 20 industry leaders, experts, and innovators sharing the latest trends and strategies that can accelerate product development growth. [Register now]( to get 40% off (get additional discounts exclusively for TIA subscribers)!  ---------------------------------------------------------------  [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 Winston Zhang. It’s edited by Dhania Putri Sarahtika. Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894