Every fortnight we compile a list of important news updates and events covering Southeast Asia FINTECH, MFGTECH, CLNTECH, and AGRTECH sectors.

For a downloadable copy of Southeast Asia Issue #04

FINTECH

Zennya nets US$1.2M to scale its mobile healthcare, medical last-mile logistics services in Philippines
Zennya, a mobile healthcare and medical last-mile logistics startup in the Philippines, said today it has recently secured US$1.2 million in a funding round led by local VC firms Foxmont Capital Partners, Ignite House of Innovation, and DayOne Capital Ventures.
David Foote is the Founder & CEO at zennya 
Franco Varona is the Managing Partner at Foxmont Capital Partners 

Eezee raises pre-Series A led by Wavemaker, secures government contract
Eezee, a Singapore-based online B2B marketplace for industrial hardware and supplies, has received an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round led by Wavemaker Partners. Other investors in the round include January Capital, the Pags Group, the family office of Bain Capital’s Stephen Pagliuca, and existing investor Insignia Ventures.
Logan Tan is the CEO, Co-Founder at Eezee

Malaysian fintech startup Finology wins Seedstars World Competition
The company will receive US$500,000 in equity funding from Seedstars, Switzerland-based VC firm. Launched in 2012, Finology is a platform that enables users access to financial products and services like banking, property and insurance.
Jared Lim is the CEO at Finology
Alisée de Tonnac is the CEO & Co-Founder at Seedstars

Mio, a social commerce startup focused on smaller cities and rural areas in Vietnam, raises $1M seed
Mio announced today it has raised $1M in seed funding. The round was co-led by Venturra Discovery and Golden Gate Ventures. Other participants included iSeed SEA, DoorDash executive Gokul Rajaram and Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, co-founders of Indian social commerce unicorn Meesho.
Trung Huynh is the CEO & Co-Founder at Mio

Woowa Brothers injects US$1.5M into Malaysian shopping aggregator iPrice
Malaysia’s online shopping aggregator iPrice Group announced today it has raised US$1.5 million financing from South Korean foodtech company Woowa Brothers. This news comes off the company’s Series B funding led by ACA Investments in March 2020, which was later joined by JG Digital Equity Ventures in September.
Paul Brown-Kenyon is the Group CEO at iPrice
Joshua Dhong is the Senior Investment Associate at Woowa

Thunes connects 260 businesses in 110 countries for cross-border payments, bags US$60M Series B
Singapore-headquartered B2B cross-border payments company Thunes announced today it has received US$60 million Series B growth round, led by global private equity and VC firm Insight Partners. Banks, money transfer operators, platforms and other businesses use Thunes to make payments to bank accounts and cash pick-up providers.
Peter De Caluwe is the CEO at Thunes
Deven Parekh is the Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners

E-commerce enabler Great Deals closes US$30M Series B to build automated fulfilment centre in Philippines
Philippine e-commerce enabler, Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation, has raised US$30 million in Series B funding round, led by local logistics major Fast Group. The round was joined by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, besides existing investor Navegar. This round comes almost a year and half after Great Deals secured US$12 million Series A from Navegar in January 2020.
Steve Sy is the Founder & CEO at Great Deals
Brice Cu is the Managing Director at CVC Capital Partners

Indonesia’s Transfez raises seed funding to venture into B2B money remittance sector
Transfez, a B2C cross-border remittance startup based in Indonesia, announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital in a round co-led by East Ventures and Beenext
Bondan Herumurti is the Co-Founder & CTO at Transfez
Melisa Irene is the Partner at East Ventures

Alibaba, partners invest $400m in Vietnam’s Masan Group to expand online groceries business
Alibaba Group and private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia yesterday announced their participation in a US$400 million investment in Vietnam’s retail giant Masan Group, giving a boost to Alibaba’s ecommerce platform Lazada to compete in the online groceries business.
Khoi Nguyen is the Associate Director at Masan Group
Janice Leow is the Managing Director at Baring Private Equity Asia

BukuKas bags US$50M in Series B funding to expand its services offered to merchants
BukuKas, a digital ledger app for MSMEs in Indonesia, announced today that it has raised US$50 million in Series B funding. According to the press statement, the new money will be used to strengthen BukuKas’ leadership team, engineering, and product capabilities both in Jakarta and Bangalore
Lorenzo Peracchione is the Founder & COO at BukuKas

Moglix, Singapore’s e-commerce platform for industrial tools, secures $120m
Moglix, a Singapore-headquartered e-commerce platform for industrial tools and equipment, has announced raising $120 million as part of its latest Series E funding round. The funding round, which was co-anchored by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company, takes the overall valuation of the company to $1 billion, minting it as a new unicorn.
Rahul Garg is the Founder at Moglix

AGRTECH

TaniHub lands US$65.5M Series B to empower Indonesia’s 40M small farmers through tech, financingTaniHub Group, which operates e-commerce and P2P lending platforms for farmers in Indonesia, has closed its US$65.5 million Series B round of financing, led by MDI Ventures. New and existing investors, including Add Ventures, BRI Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Tenaya Capital, UOB Venture Management, and Vertex Ventures, also joined the round.
Pamitra Wineka is the CEO at TaniHub Group
Sandhy Widyasthana is the Director of Portfolio Management at MDI Ventures

MFGTECH

Microsoft’s VC arm infuses US$6.25M into hyperlocal solutions startup NextBillion.ai
NextBillion.ai, an Artificial Intelligence-powered hyperlocal solutions startup in Singapore, has extended its Series A financing round by adding US$6.25 million more to its war chest from Microsoft’s venture fund arm M12. This follows a US$7 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Falcon Edge Capital last year.
Gaurav Bubna and Ajay Bulusu is the Co-Founders at NextBillion.ai

Sesto Robotics expands into Europe, targeting Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Singapore’s autonomous mobile robot company SESTO Robotics has expanded to Europe. It has partnered with the Germany-based automation specialist Baumüller, to bring its flagship AMR SESTO Magnus (Magnus) to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. SESTO claims it is the first Singapore-based robotics company to offer autonomous mobile robot solutions focused on smart manufacturing in Europe.
Ang Chor-Chen is the CEO at SESTO Robotics

Otsaw Digital launches home delivery robots in Singapore
Named Camello, the robots are currently undergoing a one-year trial with their services offered to 700 households. According to the report, users can book delivery slots for groceries including milk and eggs, and they will be notified through an app when the robot is near a pick-up point, such as the lobby of an apartment building.
Ling Ting Ming is the Founder & CEO at Otsaw