'Tech for good' may be a cliche, but it's still a noble cause

Rox Motor Tech, Serentica Renewables, MitrAssist, 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} While it might still be driven by business considerations, it’s good to see that - despite the adverse economic conditions - there’s still healthy funding in industries like smart vehicles, energy solutions, and healthtech, as evidenced by this week’s top deals. After working in and around this space for a while, we could easily forget that the beauty of startups lies in how they can swiftly solve problems, and that value really shines through when it comes to dealing with social issues. Here’s hoping for more progress in using tech for good. 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. -- Winston  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  CN Rox Motor Tech is a China-based smart car manufacturer. It [raised US$1 billion]( in strategic funding from Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group. IN Serentica Renewables is an end-to-end energy solutions company. It secured a US$360.9 million debt funding round, with REC investing. IL MitrAssist, an Israeli healthtech firm, took home a US$100 million series C round. The investors were 6 Dimensions Capital, Centurium Capital, and Haiheng Capital. SG Singapore fintech firm Funding Societies has received US$27 million in debt funding from AlteriQ, Aument Capital Partners, and Orange Bloom. KR Sky Labs is a South Korean big data-based preventative healthcare company. It closed a series C round worth over US$15 million from Devsisters Ventures, K2 Investment Partners, and KDB Bank, among others. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [54 deals worth over US$1.8 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As TH EasyCompare is a Thailand-based insurance broker that offers car, general, travel, and health insurance services. It was acquired by Rabbit Care, an online insurance broker firm, for an undisclosed sum. SG Singapore-based DirectAsia, which provides online vehicle insurance, was acquired by Thai company Roojai. The financial details of the deal were not made publicly available.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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]( PH OnePropertee connects sellers to buyers in a platform that offers unlimited free listings, guaranteed leads, and smart tools in property selling. ID Kamtuu Indonesia is a Tokopedia-like marketplace for inbound tour and travel products. SG SmartBite connects reliable restaurants to millions of workers, providing a flexible and waste-minimizing food solution for businesses in a hybrid work era. 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 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. 2️⃣ This deck helped a livestreaming social commerce app secure SOSV’s backing India-based Kiko TV allows users to shop and sell products, as well as access entertainment content on a single platform. In 2021, the startup used [this pitch deck]( to get pre-series A funding in a round led by global investor SOSV. The presentation is neatly designed, with a balance of images and text, and points out some chinks in the online shopping process that Kiko TV aims to iron out. 3️⃣ This pitch deck helped a digital workspace startup raise 500 Startups funding Mural is a digital workspace for visual collaboration, enabling users to create diagrams, flow charts, and maps alongside teammates, clients, and customers. Using [this deck]( the US-based firm nabbed series A funding at a 500 Startups Demo Day. The presentation shows Mural’s annual recurring sales and revenue right at the beginning, then highlights some of its prominent clients before stating the visual solution that it developed.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 When it rains, it pours The economy might get worse before it gets better, if [this PitchBook article]( rings true. With down rounds increasing in number, history shows the worst could be yet to come. During the dot-com bust, the rate of down rounds went over 58%. And following the 2008 housing crash, it almost reached 36%. 2️⃣ Time is finite, while energy is not… …or so [this Harvard Business Review article]( says. It offers some tips on how to refresh yourself across the day so that your energy levels don’t completely fall off into the burnout zone. 3️⃣ Anyone can type, but how many can write copy that sells? I’m a writer, so I understand the value of every single word I put to (digital) paper. The goal is to have every word, every sentence add value to the overall article or newsletter. [This piece on First Round Review]( delves deeper into how to use the right words to inspire action. 4️⃣ Life after VC What does one do after leaving a job at a VC? Frankly, I’d answer with another question: “What do YOU want to do?” But of course, it’s not always so straightforward for everyone. [This Reddit thread]( brings up a few suggestions for a post-VC life. 5️⃣ Even knowledgeable VCs can have their NFTs stolen Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson talks about [having his NFTs stolen]( and the lessons he’s learned from the experience. I wish I could be so chill after getting robbed.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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