Sweet deals are made of this

Ola Electric, Pony.ai, YouTrip, 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} We had our Tech in Asia Conference last week, and I was right in the thick of it - I moderated a panel, was emcee for the annual Startup Arena pitching competition, and talked to a bunch of people in informal meetups. It was bustling in every sense of the word, but my conversations with the two VC partners from the panel I moderated showed me that my schedule was chicken feed compared to theirs - they were essentially booked full of meetings from dawn to dusk. It’s at events like ours that big deals are made - or at least, it’s where the seeds are planted. I’d like to think that we played a part in bringing about some of the hundred-million-dollar deals this weekly newsletter covers. 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 Ola Electric, the electric-vehicle arm of Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, has [closed a US$384 million series F]( round of funding. The investors were the State Bank of India and Temasek Holdings. CN Pony.ai, a Chinese firm that builds self-driving technology, has secured US$100 million from Neom, a smart city project in Saudi Arabia. SG YouTrip is a Singapore-based multicurrency mobile wallet that allows users to make overseas payments with no transaction fees. It bagged [US$50 million in series B money]( from Lightspeed. KR Moreh is a South Korean AI startup that focuses on maximizing the scalability of the AI market. It raised US$22 million in its series B funding round from AMD and KT Corporation. JP BitStar is a Japanese firm focusing on influencer marketing, media production, and VTuber businesses, among others. It closed a series E round worth over US$12 million, with AG Capital, Adlib Tech Ventures, and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners among the investors. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [62 deals worth over US$860 million](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As KR K-Style Hub Inc is a South Korean firm that provides cosmetics-matching solutions for young women of different skin types. ID Delisa Ecommerce is an Indonesian startup working to optimize the supply chain for daily consumables. SG Mamabox Corporation is a Singapore-based distribution technology company that focuses on “total commerce.” It provides solutions in social commerce, ecommerce, digital marketing, vending, and exclusive distribution. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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 Myverse is a startup from the Philippines that aims to be a hybrid of all social platforms ever developed. SG A2Eship provides a cross-border logistics platform connecting consumers with overseas merchants. It is based in Singapore. VN Toothless is a Vietnam-based firm that develops no-code cognitive solutions for businesses. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ An ex-Amazon exec’s startup bagged seed money with this pitch deck Founded in 2011 by former Amazon software engineer Natlie Gordon, Babylist is a universal registry for baby products that lets customers add items from a wide range of retailers, including local stores and independent shops. The startup used [this pitch deck]( to secure US$620,000 in seed funding in 2013. The presentation begins with how Gordon encountered a prevalent problem in the baby registry business and then shows how capitalizing on it would lead Babylist to profitability within its first year. 2️⃣ The pitch deck that got a US cybersecurity firm US$36 million in series C money Awake Security is a provider of AI-driven security network detection and response solutions. To raise seed funding in 2020, the company used [this pitch deck](. It starts with an executive summary that outlines the company’s general information, its market opportunity, and the members of its leadership team. The next slides then share details such as Awake Security’s key customers and pipeline, analyst perspectives, and the challenges that its service aims to tackle. 3️⃣ This Vietnamese mobility app’s pitch deck helped it score US$1.5 million in seed funding Phenikaa MaaS, founded by award-winning programmer Yee-Thanh Le, is the developer of Vietnamese public transit app BusMap. With [this pitch deck]( the startup secured seed funding from Pheenika Group in 2021. The deck is presented well and provides comprehensive information about Phenika MaaS’ business. It also lays out the company’s milestones to date.  --------------------------------------------------------------- CONVENE AND CONNECT Get a ticket to this exclusive gathering on November 16 to think outside the box A key element of successful businesses is the ability to continuously pave a path towards growth and profitability amid changing market trends. Though scaling typically happens behind the scenes, it's crucial for decision-makers to consider best practices and to get creative on how to improve and gain recognition for their work on this process. Keen to find out how it’s done? Get it straight from senior business leaders, talent managers, and founders at Brushstrokes to Success: Design a Solid Growth Plan for 2024”, an exclusive gathering co-hosted by Tech in Asia and G-P at Bridge+ on November 16. Gain and exchange insights with our panelists from Aspire, 2C2P, and G-P in an open Q&A session. Over light bites and drinks, we’ll also go through an exciting agenda of quizzes, modern calligraphy, panel discussions and more. Don’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize existing strategies and to elevate your decision-making abilities. [Get a ticket]( to this closed-door event NOW before they’re all snatched up!  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Running a business in Israel You’ve heard of wartime CEOs, but have you heard of literal wartime CEOs? In [this Masters of Scale podcast episode]( Maayan Cohen of Hello Heart talks about what it’s like to lead a company in a country at war. 2️⃣ Mental health is for everyone I recently had a chat with the co-founder of a mental health platform that helps users connect with therapists, and he told me that the main bulk of his platform’s users are under 35 years old. Additionally, one of the startups that pitched at the recent Tech in Asia Conference’s Startup Arena targeted its services at millennials and Gen Z users. With all this, it can be easy to forget that mental health issues also affect older people. [This Harvard Business Review article]( offers some tips on supporting employees’ mental health in multigenerational workplaces. 3️⃣ Numbers that make a mockery of the winter Goldman Sachs has closed its latest infrastructure fund [at US$4 billion](. So far, the new fund - which aims to deploy 30% of its capital on energy transition-enabling businesses - has invested US$2.3 billion in eight companies. 4️⃣ Building a customer base before the product That subheader sounds like social media influencer talk, doesn’t it? See how well it matches up with the entrepreneurship journey of Deepica Mutyala, CEO of beauty brand Live Tinted, in [this First Round Review article](. 5️⃣Who doesn’t love a relatable listicle? The old saying goes that the wisest people learn from the mistakes of others. Perhaps we can all pick up some lessons from this piece titled [“The 5 Dilemmas of a Startup Founder.”](  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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