A blockbuster acquisition tops our chart this week

Inuchip, Global Dental Services, Knowledge Work, 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} If you’ve been following this VC newsletter for a while, you’d most likely have noticed that while we have a section dedicated to M&As, we’re rarely able to obtain publicly available financial terms for those deals. It reflects much of the rest of the startup world - valuations and acquisition deals are often highly secretive matters, so more often than not, we can only write that the amount was “undisclosed.” This week, however, is a completely different story. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve seen an acquisition not only top our entire list of investment deals over the past week but do so with a truly stunning figure - so congratulations to the Chaitanya India Fin Credit team for securing such a successful exit. 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. -- Jonathan  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  CN Inuchip, a Chinese microelectronics company, has raised US$71 million in series A money from Accurate Capital, Hefei Industry Investment Group, Jinxi Venture Capital, and Tianyu Digital Technology Dalian Group. IN Global Dental Services is an India-based dental network. It got US$50 million in strategic investment from Qatar Investment Authority. JP Knowledge Work is a SaaS provider of sales solutions that are based in Japan. It secured US$30 million for its series B round from Globis Capital Partners and World Innovation Lab. KR Habit Factory is an insurtech startup from South Korea. It scored a US$14 million series C round from K-Growth, KB Investment, Murex Partners, and Shinhan Venture Investment, among other investors. ID Jala, an Indonesian agritech firm, has bagged US$13 million in series A money from Intudo Ventures, Mirova, SMDV, and The Meloy Fund. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [61 deals worth over US$520 million](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As IN Chaitanya India Fin Credit, a rural microfinance company, has been acquired by Svatantra Microfin for US$176 million. MY Malaysia-based Talentcloud offers AI software for human capital management and data analytics. It’s been [acquired by The SEA Capital for US$2.6 million](. IN Based in India, recruitment company Aargee Staffing Services has been acquired by CIEL HR for an undisclosed amount. PH Health Plan Philippines is a hospital and healthcare company based in the same country. Hive Health acquired it for an undisclosed amount. JP HRBrain, a Japanese talent management service, has been acquired by EQT. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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 ADPList is a Singaporean startup offers a platform for users to find mentors. SG Also based in Singapore, Evren provides a desktop operating system for frontline and contingent enterprise workers. AE Asquey, based in the United Arab Emirates, offers a solution to help companies diagnose their business health. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A biotech startup’s pitch deck helped it get US$123 million in series B money Founded in 2012, Atomwise uses deep-learning AI technology for structure-based drug discovery. With [this pitch deck]( the startup raised a US$123 million series B funding round in 2020. The presentation introduces Atomwise’s technology and partnership success stories, and includes important figures such as the total funds raised, the number of drug discovery projects the firm has worked on, and the success rates of the projects. 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 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 for individuals, families, 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. With a simple look that keeps viewers engaged, the presentation begins with a background of the health insurance industry before introducing Oscar and how it works.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Help! Thief! Some founders - especially new ones - may be rather wary of going to VCs with their fresh ideas, fearing that investors could just take the idea and run. One Reddit user had this thought and asked for advice [here]( but to be honest, you should read it just for the entertainment of seeing many of the comments shutting the original poster down. 2️⃣ It’s cancer There’s a running joke that whenever you search for a diagnosis on WebMD, it’ll just end up telling you that you have cancer. Naturally, that’s not very accurate, but with the emergence of large language models, online diagnosis provided by non-humans might actually be a viable avenue. Read more [here](. 3️⃣ Trouble at the top The OpenAI debacle would probably still be fresh in your mind. While things like that don’t happen that often, it’s definitely something that everyone needs to keep in mind - how do you navigate big, company-changing leadership moves? [This podcast episode]( shares more. 4️⃣ To be or not to be? Life is filled with interesting dichotomies. For SaaS companies, that often takes the form of choosing between a subscription model or usage-based pricing. [This post]( talks more about a rule of thumb firms can follow. 5️⃣ Holding out for a hero While VC firms have often been a part of many of the biggest tech advancements, it’s still important to bear in mind that they can’t “solve all the world’s problems,” as the writer of [this Medium post]( says. Instead, VCs are more effective only in certain scenarios. Read the post to find out more.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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 Jonathan Chew. It’s edited by Dhania Putri Sarahtika. Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894