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 #06

FINTECH

GrowSari, a B2B platform for small stores in the Philippines, adds investors like Temasek’s Pavilion Capital and Tencent
GrowSari, a tech-enabled B2B platform that helps small convenient stores (known as ‘sari-sari-stores’ in the Philippines, has raised an undisclosed amount in Series B financing round from a group of existing and new investors.
ER Rollan is the Co Founder, CEO at Growsari

Buy now, pay later startup Kredivo doubles its debt facility from Victory Park Capital to $200M
Almost seven months after raising US$100 million in debt facility from the alternative investment Victory Park Capital Advisors, Indonesian digital credit platform for retail borrowers Kredivo has raised additional US$100 million from the US-based firm. The capital will be used to fund consumer loans for Kredivo’s borrowers in Indonesia.
Umang Rustagi is the CEO at Kredivo

1982 Ventures joins Singaporean ‘wealthcare’ app Hugo’s US$2M round
Hugo, a Singapore-based digital wealth and savings app, has secured US$2 million funding from 1982 Ventures and prominent family offices and angels. The startup will use the money to continue to enhance offering with new customer-driven products and services.
David Fergusson is the CEO, Co-Founder at Hugo
Herston Powers is the Managing Partner at 1982 Ventures

MFast nets US$1.5M to connect underserved Vietnamese with financial and insurance firms
MFast, a fintech platform that enables Vietnamese to access, use and introduce financial and insurance service packages, has secured US$1.5 million in pre-Series A round of investment. Led by early-stage VC firm Do Ventures, the round also saw participation from JAFCO Asia.
Long Phan Thanh is the CEO and co-founder at Mfast
Le Hoang UyenVy is the General Partner at Do Ventures

pitchIN secures US$1.3M in funding via own ECF platform, in talks to raise US$1.2M more
pitchIN, a leading equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform in Malaysia, announced today it has raised RM5.5 million (~US$1.3 million) through its own campaign. The capital came from 322 investors participated, including Chan Kok San, co-founder of Aimflex; and Simpson Wong Kean Hin, Managing Director of Shellys Marketing.
Sam Shafie is the CEO and Co-Founder at pitchIN

Finantier raises 7-figure USD to take its open finance solution to Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand
Finantier, a Singapore-based open finance startup, has raised 7-figure seed capital in a new funding round led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) and East Ventures (EV). Finantier intends to use the money to scale and enhance its product offerings within Indonesia, expand to the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and double its team size.
Diego Rojas is the Co-Founder & CEO at Finantier
Willson Cuaca is the Co-Founder at East Ventures

RPG Commerce raises Series A funding, eyes global expansion
Kuala Lumpur-headquartered RPG Commerce, a company that builds, launches and scales multi-brand e-commerce businesses globally, has secured an undisclosed amount in Series A round of investment. Lead investors are Temasek-backed Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, and Joseph Phua, co-founder and Chairman of 17 Live.
Melvin Chee is the CEO at RPG Commerce
Joo Hock Chua is the Managing Director at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia

Turochas Fuad’s BNPL startup Pace receives debt financing, inks partnership with Valiram
Pace Enterprise, a ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) startup owned by Spacemob founder Turochas “T” Fuad, has secured an ‘eight-figure USD’ debt financing round led by Genesis Alternative Ventures. The Singapore-headquartered fintech startup will use the cash to grow its business in Southeast Asia.
Turochas “T” Fuad is the CEO at Pace

Aevice Health bags US$2M for its wearable smart stethoscope, expands to Japan
Aevice Health, a Singapore-based startup developing novel wearables for remote respiratory monitoring, announced today it has secured S$2.8 million (US$2.1 million) pre-Series A funding.
Adrian Ang is the CEO at AEvice Health
Tan Kaixin is the General Manager at SEEDS Capital

SEA-focused early-stage fund Investible hits first close of US$39M second fund
Investible, an Australian seed-stage Investment firm with a focus on Southeast Asia, announced today it has surpassed the first close of its second fund at SGD35.9 million (US$27 million) in committed capital.
Rod Bristow is the CEO at Investible

WaveScan raises funding to develop inspection and maintenance scanners for drones
WaveScan Technologies, a Singapore-based smart sensors company, has raised seed capital in a round led by Silicon Solution Ventures (SSV), an investment fund managed by Silicon Solution Partners. The company will use the money to launch the first version of its modular scanner system.
Kush Agarwal is the CEO & Founder at WaveScan  

Automotive marketplace Carro hits unicorn status with $360M Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2
Malaysia-based Carro has raised US$360 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, making it the first automotive marketplace unicorn in Southeast Asia
Aaron Tan is the CEO at Carro
Greg Moon is the Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers

AGRTECH

How Iamus’ machine vision robot Gallus is optimising the poultry industry
With investment from the family behind Manor Farm and others involved in animal feed milling, Kiernan started Iamus in 2018, Philippines. Since then Iamus have developed their “Gallus” solution. An integrated solution that acquires proprietary data from a mesh of static sensors and an autonomous robot that results in predictive recommendations to the customer that lead to improved margins and better animal welfare outcomes.
Shane Kiernan is the CEO at Iamus 

BoomGrow has converted old containers to ‘machine farms’ to grow pesticide-free vegetables in Malaysia
Established in 2015, Kuala Lumpur-headquartered BoomGrow is an indoor farming company operating in the vertical farming and precision farming space. It grows fresh, clean, hyperlocal produce suchas butterhead, romaine, kale, Swiss chard, basil, and mint. These are otherwise imported from cold countries.
Jay Desan is the Co-Founder at BoomGrow

MFGTECH

Foodpanda partners startups to trial food delivery via autonomous robots in NUS, NTU, Punggol
Food delivery platform Foodpanda introduced at present (June 10) that it has partnered with three autonomous robotic startups to advance the progress of driverless deliveries in Singapore. They embrace Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) scholar startup, Whizz Mobility; native robotics firm OTSAW; and Chinese autonomous automobile startup Neolix.
Jorge Rubio is the Operations Director at Foodpanda Singapore