Life is all about striking a balance

Rebellions, Bluesail, Krutrim, 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} I’ve had the privilege of being able to travel for my job over the years, and - this will sound odd - sometimes I prefer traveling for work than for pleasure. It’s because I would have a schedule in place that I can then work around, slotting in little bits of sightseeing or restaurant visits and generally enjoying a balance between work and play. There’s structure, basically, and - to paraphrase the editor of this weekly newsletter - I don’t always do too well in unstructured environments. This theme of international travel permeates today’s edition, where firms from all across Asia are getting big-money deals done, including in South Korea and China. Maybe I’ll get to travel to those countries for business one day. 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  KR South Korean firm Rebellions develops AI semiconductor-based full-stack solutions. It secured US$124 million in its series B round, with IMM Investment, KB Investment, and KB Securities among the participating investors. CN Based in China, Bluesail is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of medical gloves. It raised over US$126 million in late-stage funding from Huagai Capital and Linkong Private Equity Fund Management. IN Krutrim is an Indian AI firm that aims to focus on creating silicon chips and building a cloud infrastructure. It [locked down US$50 million]( in early-stage funding from Matrix Partners India, among others. IL Israeli firm Aim Security empowers enterprises to securely leverage public generative AI technology. It received US$10 million in seed funding from Cyber Club London and YL Ventures. SG Pyxis is a Singaporean maritime electrification startup. It bagged US$3.4 million in seed money from Kim Ann Investments, LCC Resources, and MarImpact, among others. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [69 deals worth over US$744 million](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As ID Indonesia-based Amanah Githa, a Shariah life Insurance firm, was acquired for an undisclosed sum by fundraising platform Kitabisa.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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 Singapore-based Artisan Green has a farming platform that digitalizes all growing protocols and automates all operations. VN Vietnamese startup BonBonCar offers smart car rentals. SG E-Port, a Singaporean firm, aims to solve supply chain wastage and emission problems by providing real-time visibility in the maritime commerce ecosystem through digitalization. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ This pitch deck was credible enough to close a US$9 million series C CredAble is an India-based fintech firm that offers working capital financing across enterprise ecosystems. This [pitch deck]( which helped it secure US$9 million in series C funding, succinctly illustrates CredAble’s addressable market before giving a comprehensive breakdown of the firm’s services. 2️⃣ A beauty store startup secured US$6 million in pre-series A money with this deck OsakaKuma, a beauty and personal care store run by lifestyle curator Sinbad, offers exclusive Japanese products from a collection of over 1,000 items. The Singapore-based startup used [this pitch deck]( to obtain pre-series A funding. The presentation clearly states Sinbad’s belief, vision, mission, and values in the introduction. It then elaborates on the pain points that customers face before offering OsakaKuma’s solution. 3️⃣ The pitch deck that a SaaS startup used to raise seed money Qualio brings together teams, processes, and data onto a single platform to help streamline operations and accelerate the market entry of its clients’ products. The US-based firm raised US$336,000 in seed money from 500 Startups and Enterprise Ireland using [this pitch deck](. The presentation highlights Qualio’s credibility by presenting its FDA-approved status and mission statement: to help life-saving products get launched faster.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Marriage counseling… for co-founders? Honestly, this basically sounds to me like just getting a neutral, helpful third party to mediate an emotionally charged situation. The “marriage counseling” part of [this article]( is just an eye-catching, lowkey clickbait copy. Nevertheless, I’ll never dismiss any kind of therapy that can help people live happier lives, whether that’s on the professional or personal level. 2️⃣ How are VCs fired? As I wrote about in a previous edition of this newsletter, it’s not just startups who are feeling the heat (cold?) of the tech winter - VCs, especially smaller ones, are also winding down or scaling back. But how do VC firms scale back? Specifically, how do they lay off partners? [This PitchBook article]( takes us behind the scenes. 3️⃣ H(AI)l to the Chief What’s the US government’s thoughts on AI? Hear from the guy who had a meeting with President Joe Biden on this very topic in [this Masters of Scale episode](. 4️⃣ Top tips for founders regarding VCs In the opener to [this article]( the author writes about a student of his who’s wondering when the right time for startups to reach out to VCs is, expressing doubt on the concept of “as early as possible.” Find out why he thinks this way. 5️⃣ Charging up M&As As I wrote above, the tech winter has affected just about every aspect of the industry. Funding deals are down and so are M&As. But the energy sector is apparently doing OK on the M&A front, with deal value totalling US$380.8 billion last year, up 8.26% from the previous year. Find out more in [this PitchBook article](.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [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 © 2024 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894