Of AI and electric vehicles

Hozon Auto, KiranaKart, AI21 Labs, and more raise 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} What are some sectors in tech that are exciting to you? For me, two that stand out are AI and cleantech. We’ve already seen how AI can be transformative and cleantech - be it electric vehicles, decarbonization, or clean energy - is obviously crucial to answering the much larger question we’re grappling with around keeping our planet safe and habitable. This week’s top-funded startups are mostly operating in the AI or EV space, which is really exciting - and also gratifying, since it seems that investors are just as optimistic as I am about these sectors. 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 that recently took place. -- Stefanie  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  CN Hozon Auto is an EV developer from China. It raised US$960 million in a late-stage round. IN India-based KiranaKart, which operates e-grocery app Zepto, secured US$200 million in series E money from Glade Brook Capital, Goodwater Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group, and Lachy Groom. IL AI21 Labs aims to build AI-powered systems focused on understanding and generating natural language. Hailing from Israel, it [raised US$155 million]( from Google, Nvidia, Pitango Venture Capital, SCB10X, Samsung Next, Walden Catalyst Ventures, and B2venture in a series C round. KR Sapeon is a South Korean firm that has developed a processor optimized for AI tasks. It closed a US$45 million series A funding round joined by Ascent Equities Partners, Hana Financial Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and We Ventures. SG Charged Asia, an EV manufacturer from Singapore, [has raised US$40 million]( in a debt round from Geo Energy Resources. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [56 deals worth over US$1.8 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As PH FinScore offers smart credit scoring services in the Philippines. It was acquired by CTOS Digital, which operates credit reporting firms, for US$5.9 million. MM CarsDB, Myanmar's largest automobile marketplace, was acquired by property website iMyanmarHouse for an undisclosed sum. IN TripCrafters is an online travel marketplace in India. It was acquired by travel platform Holidify for an undisclosed amount. IN Palash, a women-focused education firm, has been acquired by Pankhuri, a social community platform for women. The size of the deal was undisclosed.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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]( SG EigenSensor is a healthtech startup in Singapore that offers medical devices and sensors for mobile neurological monitoring. ID Nineflix is a video streaming platform providing diverse, value-driven, and respectful content for Indonesia’s Muslim population. HK Inalife is a digital legacy platform from Hong Kong that aims to connect families. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A healthtech firm’s pitch deck got the attention of a former PayPal executive Oscar is a direct-to-consumer health insurance platform that provides medical packages tailored for individuals and small groups. The US-based firm used [this pitch deck]( in 2014 to bag US$80 million in a series A round led by Joe Lonsdale, a general partner at 8VC and an ex-PayPal executive. The deck has a simple design that keeps viewers engaged. It begins with an overview of the health insurance industry before introducing Oscar and how it works. 2️⃣ Bukalapak used this pitch deck to land its seed round Ecommerce major Bukalapak may now be a publicly listed firm worth a lot of money but it wasn’t always easy for the Indonesia-based startup to shore up funds. According to co-founder Achmad Zaky, the firm’s [seed pitch deck]( didn’t go a long way toward raising money. The company only managed to bring in capital about six months after the deck was created in 2011. 3️⃣ An experiential VR startup used this deck to bag US$68 million in series A money Hong Kong-based Sandbox VR enables users to see and interact with each other in a virtual reality experience. The startup used [this pitch deck]( to help it raise US$68 million for its series A funding round in 2019. The pitch deck starts with detailing the challenges faced by the VR industry then describes the future opportunities in the market.  --------------------------------------------------------------- CONNECT AND NETWORK Apply for a seat to September 13's closed-door dinner to get free-flow drinks! Technology is rapidly evolving and it's getting tougher to be heard in a noisy digital world. For a business to succeed, it has to master its end-to-end customer journey. For a business to scale, it must be adept at personalizing that journey based not only on current customer behaviors but also in anticipation of their future needs and actions. Keen to find out how it's done? Tech in Asia & CleverTap are bringing together senior leaders and executives in B2C product, data, growth, and marketing for an exclusive dinner and networking event at CTY Kitchen + Bar in Ho Chi Minh City on September 13. Connect with Gameloft, VNG, Lazada, and more to discover best practices in designing, implementing, and optimizing personalized customer journeys at scale. Over a hearty meal, network and engage in an interactive Q&A with our panelists from CleverTap, Fonos, Zalo, and Cho Tot. Get the full scoop on the agenda and [claim your seat here]( before it's snatched up. Sign up now to get free-flowing drinks too!  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 high can we go? Despite being at the early stages, most startups coming out of a Y Combinator cohort would command a high valuation. [This Crunchbase]( piece goes deeper into what goes on at one of the world’s most famous accelerators. 2️⃣ Betting on the long term Corporate venture capital can play a crucial role in a company’s long-term growth, giving it insights into where markets and trends are headed. Being a corporate VC, they can be in it for the long haul and they benefit from making strategic bets, according to [this article]( from The Wall Street Journal. 3️⃣ Feeling the heat The latest executive order restricting US venture capital and private equity investments in Chinese companies may have been [the “final nail in the coffin”]( for foreign investment into crucial industries in China such as AI and chipmaking, which could limit growth. 4️⃣ Getting the right feedback [This podcast]( from the Harvard Business Review goes into some of the challenges leaders face with giving and receiving feedback. It also offers some guidance and best practices on the matter. 5️⃣ Conflicts of interest Some might say that startups and VCs have a symbiotic relationship. However, there are also points where their interests may diverge and even come into conflict. [This Reddit thread]( goes a little deeper into this and offers some suggestions on how startups and investors can navigate these clashes.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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 Stefanie Yeo. It’s edited by Dhania Putri Sarahtika. 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