Funding for greater goods

Perfios, Juexin Microelectronics, Rukita, 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} Of today’s top deals, one stands out to me. Rukita, which received US$15 million in series B money, offers affordable rental options catered to Indonesia’s burgeoning middle class and millennials. I’m pretty lucky - I managed to get a place just before prices started to rocket. But I can certainly empathize with my peers who have to deal with rising rents and housing scarcity. Also, as someone who sees my house as a source of respite, I can’t imagine having to move every couple years just because a landlord decided to hike rents. Anyway, Rukita is a reminder that there are companies out there with worthwhile missions, and I hope we see many more such firms get the funding they need to fulfill their goals and help people. 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 Hailing from India, Perfios is a personal financial software that extracts, categorizes, and analyzes thousands of data types in real time. It closed an US$80 million series D round, with the Teachers’ Venture Growth as the sole investor. CN Juexin Microelectronics develops and manufactures semiconductor devices and sensors. The Chinese firm got US$70.5 million in series A money from CASIC and Hunan Dice Venture Capital. ID Indonesia-based Rukita aims to repurpose underutilized real estate to create affordable quality living spaces for rent. It secured a [US$15 million series B round]( to aid its mission. The investors include BNI Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and MPower Partners. SG Singaporean firm UXLink is a Web3 social infrastructure composed of social protocols and a collection of decentralized apps. It received US$9 million in a seed funding round led by OKX Ventures, among others. KR Promedius offers an osteoporosis screening solution using chest X-rays. The South Korean firm raised just over US$7.8 million in its series A round, which saw Big Move Ventures, Crit Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners participating, among others. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [54 deals worth over US$318 million](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As  IN India-based Asa Beauty provides vegan and cruelty-free makeup. It was acquired by BIA Brands, a fast-moving consumer goods firm, for an undisclosed sum. AE Embedded, a finance platform based in the United Arab Emirates, has been acquired by German tech firm Mitgo Group. The financial details were not made publicly available. SG Singaporean cultivated seafood startups Shiok Meats and Umami Bioworks [are merging](. The merged entity will use the Umami Bioworks name while retaining the Shiok Meats brand.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  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.]( TW Taiwanese firm 8Arc is a text-to-movie AI generator for non-technical online marketers and content creators. SG Based in Singapore, SmartBite is an online platform connecting users with local caterers and restaurants for diverse events. IN India-based Scale.jobs is an AI-augmented marketplace connecting US-based job seekers with human executive assistants in India. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  BEHIND THE GLASSWALL Fundraising often involves reaching out to multiple contacts, many of whom founders might not have dealt with before. To provide some transparency to this process, we created Glasswall, a platform for founders to give feedback and recommendations on investors. Check out the full list [here](. - ❌ “Overall process was very lengthy. Despite have set 3-4 months timelines for our close we still spent a lot of time on education and questions that could have been solved via some research.” - [Read more]( - ✅︎ “Their due diligence included current ways of solving defect problems, in-depth competitor analysis, and extensive customer interviews with diverse segments. This thorough approach resulted in validating our core market assumptions and identifying overlooked strategic opportunities, which instilled significant confidence in their commitment to our success. Beyond financial investment, I believe they are active partners in our growth journey. ” - [Read more]( - ❌ “Notorious for pulling term sheets for no good reason. They promise the world and then pull the rug underneath from you. I have seen this happen with 3 of my founder friends. Best avoided.” - [Read more](  --------------------------------------------------------------- SAIGON SUMMIT 2024: CHARTING VIETNAM’S TECH FUTURE Get unlimited exposure for your business at Startup Showcase Startup Showcase isn’t just about brand visibility - we’re offering several perks! A slot on Startup Showcase will get you a dedicated booth, two entry tickets to Saigon Summit, extra savings on additional ticket purchases, plenty of networking opportunities, exclusive face time with potential investors and prospects, unlimited exposure for your startup - and a lot more benefits! Hurry, we’ll only accept applications until April 22. [Apply to exhibit now!](  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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 How to properly adopt genAI Generative AI was the new hotness in 2023 (and continues to be cool in 2024), but even though many have rushed to adopt the tech, the fact of the matter is that real adoption - not in terms of numbers, but actual depth of use cases - will take time. Just like any other technology. [This piece from Harvard Business Review]( offers some tips for doing so. 2️⃣ Literal moonshot What’s it like to land on the moon while not being part of Nasa? [This Masters of Scale episode]( featuring Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus, touches on autonomous vehicles and 3D-printed engines as part of a conversation on the rise of commercial space exploration. 3️⃣ Don’t stretch yourself thin I once interviewed some VCs on what they looked for in potential founders to invest in. Among a litany of traits and preferences, one common factor they shared was that they were unlikely to put money into anyone who was either still doing a day job alongside building their company, or working on two (or more) startups at once. Apparently, being in either of those camps betrayed a lack of commitment to the startup in question. [This Entrepreneurship Handbook article]( appears to say the same thing. 4️⃣ Are you sure your startup idea is a good one? Not to flex, but in another interview I did - this time with a lead of a university entrepreneurship program - I learned that one of the earliest stumbling blocks budding founders face is that of idea validation. Learning how to properly research whether a startup idea is market-viable or merely makes for a cool pitch deck is a key component in the firm’s success or lack thereof. [First Round Review]( provides an in-depth guide to doing this properly. 5️⃣ A little more International Women’s Day was last week - did you catch [our weeklong slate of content?]( Here’s a little bit more light to shine on the topic, especially regarding women in the VC sphere. What misconceptions have you heard around hiring women as partners? [This piece]( aims to debunk those.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. 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