Rooting for the underdog

Lazada, Line Next, Vegrow, 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} There’s a bit of a “rich getting richer” vibe to this week’s newsletter: Lazada and Line Next (the Line unit that focuses on the NFT ecosystem) received significant funding, and there’s also a bit on the TikTok purchase of Tokopedia. Big names sell papers (or, in our case, capture eyeballs), and that’s all well and good as long as we don’t forget that the startup world is made up of many smaller firms that are also doing important things. Luckily, there are also a few of those today. Read on to find out more. 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  SG Singapore-headquartered ecommerce major Lazada received [US$634 million in strategic investment]( from Alibaba Group. KR Line Next, a Line unit that focuses on the NFT ecosystem, raised a [US$140 million round]( from a consortium led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a private equity firm sponsored by Peter Thiel. IN India-based B2B marketplace Vegrow has netted [US$46 million in a series C fundraising round](. Led by GIC, the round also saw participation from Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, and Lightspeed. CN Fantuan, a Chinese food delivery service platform, secured US$40 million in series C funding from GrubMarket, JSD Capital, and Vision Plus Capital. ID Indonesian insurtech firm Qoala has closed US$39.5 million in debt funding. Investors include the likes of AppWorks, Eurazeo, and Flourish Ventures. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [58 deals worth over US$1.1 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As IN Goals101 is an Indian company focusing on transaction behavioral intelligence. It was acquired by digital banking infrastructure M2P Fintech for an undisclosed sum. IN One Good, an Indian vegan dairy firm, was acquired by superfood brand Nourish You for an undisclosed amount. IN Based in India, Waybeo offers advanced intelligence services in ad-generated phone calls. It was acquired by CareStack, a US-based dental software solutions firm. The financial details were not made publicly available. ID Tokopedia, the ecommerce arm of GoTo Group, was [purchased by TikTok for US$840 million](. Next up is an ecommerce pilot project. IN Healthcare-focused lending startup Kiwimoney has been acquired by digital banking platform Anq Finance 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]( ID 2Talk is an on-demand emotional support system, offering anonymous connections to empathic listeners. It is based in Indonesia. BD Bangladesh-based Dacca Sea helps creators create, share, and earn from content. SG Singapore-headquartered ADPList is a global community of mentors and learners. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A freelance job platform’s pitch deck helped it secure US$1.3 million in funding Twine connects companies with talented freelancers in the creative, digital, and marketing sectors who can pitch for available projects. It used [this deck]( to secure over US$1 million in early-stage funding. The presentation begins by sharing opportunities in the freelance industry before pointing out its usual pain points and how Twine’s service solves them. It also showcases the company’s business model and route-to-market plan. 2️⃣ A Pakistani health super app used this pitch deck for its pre-series A round Find My Doctor is a platform that provides a one-stop, at-home solution for all medical needs. With [this pitch deck]( the firm raised pre-series A funding in 2022. The deck is concise and well-designed, looks professional, and balances words and visuals. It begins with an introduction of the team, followed by key information on Find My Doctor’s growth and services. 3️⃣ This deck helped a dating app for Muslims secure seed funding from 500 Startups Created in Egypt in 2017, Hawaya is a dating platform tailored to Muslim singles. In 2018, the firm used [this pitch deck]( at a 500 Startups Demo Day to win US$150,000 in seed funding from the early-stage venture fund. The deck immediately outlines the current trend of online dating and how it is deemed socially unacceptable in the Middle East. This helps contextualize why Hawaya’s founders developed an online dating app specifically for the region and for North Africa. It also details the company’s recent growth, followed by a brief explanation of how the platform works.  --------------------------------------------------------------- KICKSTART 2024 WITH SINGAPORE’S FINEST  Apply to join January 16’s closed-door executive roundtable Are you prepared to leverage genAI and data intelligence in 2024? Businesses must embrace change and take advantage of the transformative capabilities of these new technologies if they want to appease discerning consumers who are spoiled for choice. Singapore-based marketing, growth, and product leaders are invited to register for this executive roundtable and networking lunch to: - Gain insights into the problem of rising customer acquisition costs and the shift from adtech to martech. - Learn the latest best practices in hyper-personalization by leveraging genAI tools for exceptional customer engagement. - Explore the potential of AI and data intelligence in predicting customer behavior. - Discover the trends emerging in 2024 to stay ahead of evolving consumer needs. The guest list will be capped at 15 participants, so [register soon](  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Be kind, always This past year has been one of multiple slings and arrows, and sometimes amid such tough times, kindness in the workplace is eschewed in favor of just getting things done. [This Harvard Business Review article]( talks about why the opposite - being kind - would actually do a lot for your business; indeed, now more than ever. 2️⃣ If you’re gonna listen to anyone about creativity, it’s gotta be Pixar I use the terms “creativity” and “innovation” somewhat interchangeably in my work - to me, they’re kind of like two sides of the same coin. In [this Masters of Scale episode]( Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull talks about the process through which new ways of thinking and innovating can be nurtured. 3️⃣ Andreessen Horowitz bets big on AI A16z recently led a US$415 million series A round in open-source artificial intelligence models developer Mistral AI gave the VC firm yet another generative AI company in its portfolio. [This PitchBook article]( explores the VC’s overall gen AI investment strategy. 4️⃣ How do angels get their wings (to fly away)? When angel investors are brought up, it’s usually only about how they’re getting into or investing in a nascent startup - not much is made about how they can exit. It’s trickier to do so from a private company, too. [This piece on Sifted]( goes into the options angels have to exit. 5️⃣ It’s performance review szn We’re at the tail end of 2023, and for many people, that means it’s time to conduct performance reviews. It can be a stressful time for both managers and employees, but [here’s an article from First Round Review]( with some tips and tricks to make the whole endeavor a fruitful one for everyone involved.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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