What would you do with a billion dollars?

Reliance Retail, Leadrive, Good Doctor Technology, 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} In tallying the total amount of disclosed funding in this week’s newsletter, I found myself contemplating just how much a billion dollars is. Like, even a small fraction of that would change just about anyone’s life completely, right? But sometimes, even that much might not be enough to ensure the success of the funded firm. Business and tech life is a really high-stakes game even at the best of times. Let’s keep fighting to tilt the odds in our favor. 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  IN Reliance Retail, the retail chain of Reliance Industries, has secured over US$590 million in a strategic investment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. CN Leadrive is a China-based electrification solutions service provider. The company has received US$82.2 million in series D money from C Capital, Chengdu Royal Stars Venture Capital, Legend Capital, and Xinshang Capital. ID Good Doctor Technology is an Indonesian startup that develops telehealth services. It has closed a [US$10 million series A round]( from Grab and MDI Ventures. SG Account Labs, a Singapore-based Web3 platform, has raised [US$7.7 million in bridge funding]( from Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Venture, and Qiming Venture Partners. JP Floadia Corporation, which develops embedded flash memory, has closed a US$7 million series D funding round. The investors were Cypress Capital, Inabata, and Japan Finance Corporation. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [65 deals worth over US$1 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As IN TrustCheckr is an Indian platform that helps businesses verify customer information and detect fraud risk. The platform’s parent company, Unoideo Technologies, has been [acquired by global phone directory app Truecaller]( for an undisclosed sum. IN E-Positive is an India-based artist management company. The firm was acquired by Warner Music Group 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]( KR Based in South Korea, Realry is a global smart-fashion shopping engine that helps users save money and time when shopping online. ID Karyavirtual is an Indonesian platform that provides an avenue for digital creators to sell their knowledge, skills, and content. HK Moongate is a Hong Kong-based firm offering an all-in-one NFT ticketing and membership solution for brands and businesses. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ An edtech startup used this pitch deck get seed extension funding Kalpha is a peer-to-peer ecosystem for sharing skills and knowledge online. The startup used [this pitch deck]( for its seed extension round in 2020, gaining the attention of the city-state’s angel investors and its existing backer Nest Tech VN. The presentation is simple and easy to read, with important points highlighted in different colors or bold font. 2️⃣ This Visa-backed firm’s pitch deck got it a US$10 million series B top-up US-based Finix centralizes payment options for businesses. Using [this pitch deck]( the startup secured its second round of series B funding in 2020. The deck clearly outlines Finix’s solution and shows the growth of payments made through its software as well as the advantages of this approach. 3️⃣ A banking app used this pitch deck to close a US$24.3 million series C round Monzo allows users to spend, save, and manage their money all in one place. The company bagged US$24.3 million in series C money from Thrive Capital, Passion Capital, and Orange Digital Ventures with the help of [this pitch deck](. It begins with Monzo’s mission statement before going through the problems that the firm aims to solve and giving a glimpse of its machine learning technology.  --------------------------------------------------------------- TECH IN ASIA CONFERENCE 2023 Having old friends is always a good thing. Amid all the hustle and bustle leading up to Tech in Asia Conference 2023, we’d like to thank several of our partners, many of whom we’ve worked with closely for a long time. Our gratitude goes out to our platinum sponsors AppsFlyer, Aspire, CleverTap, Grab Ventures, as well as our gold sponsors Antler, Brankas, Circle, DCloud, Living Lab Ventures, Odoo, and Taiwan Mobile. There’s just a few days left till the conference, so what are you waiting for? Get 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 It’s not re-skilling or up-skilling - it’s pre-skilling I’m not entirely sure how you’re supposed to prepare for something that the article straight up calls “unknown,” but [this Harvard Business Review piece]( offers five tips on how to develop talent to remain relevant in the unpredictable future. 2️⃣ How to… start Wondering about how to launch your latest product? [Here’s a 17-phase step-by-step guide]( to do so. (That sounds like way too many phases, but hey, I’m not a product developer.) 3️⃣ The holy grail of startups Product-market fit: Everyone wants it, but not everyone gets it. Here’s how Merge, a unified [API]( company, [found it](. 4️⃣ Not so mega in China Not a single private equity fund in Greater China [has been able to close a mega fund]( - defined as one worth US$5 billion - this year. This coincides with a broader private equity slowdown, which China has been particularly affected by. 5️⃣ When co-founding goes wrong Even putting aside all the business and technical details, starting up a company alongside someone else comes with all sorts of potential for interpersonal drama. Who’s the one with the final say? Who’s the one on magazine covers and who’s working quietly in the background? Sometimes it all falls apart. [This article gives advice]( on how to navigate this sensitive situation.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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