Singapore firm Qosmosys leaves space for questions about seed round

This week’s On the Rise spotlights the spacetech firm's US$100 million seed round, an AI firm tackling credit risk, and corporate spending on AI. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise 🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- IN FOCUS In today's newsletter, we look at: - Unanswered questions about a Singapore-based spacetech firm’s [US$100 million seed round]( - How this firm is using [AI to identify credit risk for banks]( - Reports indicating that corporate spending on AI is going nowhere Hello {NAME} , Nothing ever really gets deleted on the internet, the saying goes. This is probably true, but just because something is online, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find - or that you can even get to it. Sometimes what you are looking for is buried in pages of search results. Sometimes it’s behind a paywall or it's in a different language. A good example of this comes from our first Big Story this week. Miguel takes a look at Qosmosys, a Singapore-based spacetech firm, which raised US$100 million in seed funding last October. That figure raised eyebrows, but information on the company is scarce. Scans of corporate registry information turned up nothing and the story highlights just how little information is sometimes publicly available. As someone who is always looking for information online, this problem is often on my mind. So when inRiskable CEO Megan Chau told me that her company had developed software that could search the open internet for a subject, process all the results using AI, and give me a report that cuts out all the crap, I had to see it. She ran a report on a company name I gave her and about five minutes later, I had a report that included data I had never seen before. You can read about how Chau's company does that in our second Big Story. In AI Odyssey, we also take a look at recent reports suggesting that AI is struggling to find a home with major corporations. Is the recent AI boom really just a bust? Or is the technology slow in developing? But first, let’s get into our Big Stories. -- Scott  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORIES 1️⃣ [A look at the Singapore space startup said to have raised $100m in seed money]( Details on Qosmosys’ seed round and the investors involved are scant. Airbus is helping to develop the company’s moon lander, but questions remain about its CEO and his ambitions.  2️⃣ [This Hong Kong startup develops AI to help banks find dirt on SMEs]( InRiskable is using AI to mine websites and court filings to look for signs of money laundering and other problems that could put banks at risk. Its service is also being used to search new stories for info that could help crypto traders.  --------------------------------------------------------------- AI ODYSSEY  Promising AI projects we’re noticing Is Microsoft pushing AI into the wrong aisle at Walmart? Like most people who grew up in the US, I’ve been to a lot of Super Bowl parties. The highlight of the day is usually the food. Back in the ‘90s, most hosts typically served their guests such treats as buffalo wings, nachos, and spinach and artichoke dip. I’ve been out of the US for almost 20 years, so I decided to look up what snacks are popular today. According to Google, it’s the same choice as in the ‘90s. But now Walmart says I’m doing this wrong. It has [teamed up with Microsoft]( to develop an AI product that will help me choose what to buy. “Previously, you might run numerous searches for chips, wings, drinks, and a new 90-inch television,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart’s president and CEO at a [CES keynote speech in Las Vegas](. “In the new experience, you search once, for something intuitive, and the app shows you everything you might need.” Like buffalo wings, nachos, spinach and artichoke dip? (And a new TV!) It appears to me that the folks (Microsoft) behind the AI craze of the last few months might be running out of use cases for their new technology. Sure, you can use technology like ChatGPT to create emails, marketing copy, and even some [sanction-inducing legal documents](. But what else can it do? A recent story by [The Economist]( suggests that a lot of business people are asking this question. And it seems that until they get an answer, they’re going to curtail their spending on the new tech. The main figure of concern that the report points to is capital expenditure (capex). It spiked to 8% following the pandemic but has since settled to only 3% as of March 2023. That figure is worse than it sounds when you figure in the fact that tech vendors have increased their prices between 9% and 15%, according to [The ITAM Review](. The bottom line, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs, is that capex - including spending on tech such as AI - in the US is down 4% annually. Despite AI's hype, companies aren’t buying into it. At least one company has already shown signs of strain. Humane, the makers of a pricey (US$699) AI-powered pin being marketed as a smartphone replacement, announced it was [laying off]( 10 people including the CTO, or over 4% of its staff. The announcement was made before the screenless pin is scheduled to launch in March. Does this mean that AI is a bust? Hmm…. no, as 65% of CEOs still expect AI to have a significant impact on them over the next three to five years, according to a survey cited in The Economist. Presumably, this will come as the business applications move beyond the email and marketing copy generation stage. Results that include buffalo wings, nachos, and spinach and artichoke dip won’t impress anybody. -- Scott  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Singapore semiconductor firm hits unicorn milestone]( Silicon Box has secured US$200 million in a series B funding round from BRV Capital, Event Horizon Capital, Lam Capital, and TDK Ventures, among others. The semiconductor company, which specializes in chiplet architecture, said its valuation has exceeded US$1 billion. 2️⃣ [More funds for SEA startups]( Asia Partners, a Singapore-based growth equity investment firm, has closed its second fund Asia Partners II LP, with US$474 million in committed capital. 3️⃣ [Ola narrows losses in ride-hailing biz]( The India-based firm slashed its losses in the ride-hailing business by 65% to 10.8 billion rupees (US$130.3 million) for the financial year ending March 31, 2023, according to financial statements from parent company ANI Technologies. 4️⃣ [Byju’s valuation down to $1b]( Investment management firm BlackRock has reduced the Indian edtech platform’s valuation from US$22 billion to US$1 billion. This follows similar markdowns from other Byju’s investors such as Prosus. 5️⃣ [Mobile app spends rise in 2023, says Data.ai]( Consumer spending on mobile apps grew 3% to US$171 billion, while hours spent peaked at 5.1 trillion, marking a 6% year-on-year increase, according to the recently released “State of Mobile” report.  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI 1️⃣ [Middle Eastern investors fill vacuum left by SoftBank in SEA venture scene]( Besides SoftBank and Tiger Global, Chinese investors have also retreated from investing in late-stage deals in Southeast Asia. 2️⃣ [Southeast Asian investors bullish on electric bikes, clean energy in 2024]( While the electric two-wheeler has attracted the highest investment in 2023, VCs are looking at other sustainability sectors to invest in. --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. 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