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 #16

FINTECH

Vietnamese ecommerce startup Tiki nears unicorn status after raising $240 million in Series E round
Vietnam’s leading e-commerce company Tiki has completed a US$258 million fifth funding round (Series E) led by global insurance giant AIA.
Tran Ngoc Thai Son is the CEO at Tiki

Alpha JWC closes US$433M Fund III, to increase investment size to up to US$60M
Alpha JWC Ventures, a Southeast Asia-focused fund primarily supporting Indonesian startups, has closed an oversubscribed third fund at US$433 million.
Chandra Tjan is the Co-Founder & General Partner at Alpha JWC

PH venture investor Foxmont makes $12m first close of second fund
Filipino early-stage VC firm Foxmont Capital Partners has announced the first close of its second fund, with US$12 million in committed capital.
Francisco Sibal is the Director at Foxmont Capital Partners

Bitkub becomes unicorn after SCBx’s acquisition of its majority stake for US$536M
Bangkok-headquartered digital asset and cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub has sold 51 per cent of its total shares to SCB Securities (SCBC) for 17.85 billion baht (~US$536 million).
Jirayut Srupsrisopa is the Founder & CEO at Bitkub

True Global Ventures injects US$10M into NFT metaverse game The Sandbox
Singapore-based True Global Ventures has invested US$10 million in The Sandbox, an open NFT metaverse platform.
Arthur Madrid is the CEO at The Sandbox

Ex-Tokopedia AVP’s Astro attracts US$4.5M to expand ’15-min e-commerce delivery’ service in Jakarta
Astro, a quick commerce startup in Indonesia, has received a US$4.5 million (IDR 64 billion) seed funding.
Vincent Tjendra is the Co-Founder and CEO at ASTRO

Singapore’s Una Brands scores $15m in Series A funding
Una Brands, a Singapore-based startup providing a “fast and fair way” for e-commerce business owners (vendors) to sell their companies, has raised US$15 million in Series A financing.
Kiren Tanna is the Founder at Una Brands

Co-founders inject US$48M into Lightnet to grow its blockchain-powered global remittance solutions
Thai fintech startup Lightnet, which provides blockchain-based solutions for the Asian remittance market, has received US$48 million funding from its co-founders Chatchaval Jiaravanon and Tridbodi Arunanondchai,  DealStreetAsia has reported today.
Chatchaval Jiaravanon is the Chairman at Velo Lab

Mynt becomes Philippines’s first fintech unicorn after a US$300M financing round
Mynt, a leading digital financial solutions company in the Philippines and the owner of the mobile payments GCash, has scored over US$300 million in a
funding round.
Martha Sazon is the President & CEO at Mynt

Serial entrepreneur Jeffrey Yuwono leads US$100M fund to back D2C brands in Indonesia
Open Labs, an Indonesia-based brand aggregator, announces to have launched a US$100 million (IDR 1.4 trillion) fund to finance local direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands.
Jeffrey Yuwono is the Founder & CEO at Open Labs

ex-Cen Group CEO’s proptech startup Citics scores US$1.3M to serve bankers in Vietnam
Citics, a Vietnamese online real estate platform, announces that it has raised US$1.3 million in a bridge round before a planned Series A next year.
Tran Minh Long is the Founder and CEO at Citics

Investree attracts US$10M from Swiss firm to fund Indonesian MSMEs making social, economic impact
Investree, a digital lending platform for MSMEs in Indonesia, has received US$10 million in funding from the Swiss asset manager responsAbility Investments.
Adrian Gunadi is the Co-Founder & CEO Investree

Recommend Group to expand on-demand home, local services across SEA with US$4M Series A
Singapore-based Recommend Group (formerly RecomN.com), which provides on-demand home and local services in Indonesia and Malaysia, has bagged US$4M in a Series A fundraise.
Jes Min Lua is the Co-Founder at Recommend Group

Monde Nissin CEO, Big Idea Ventures inject US$1.2M into Filipino alt-protein startup WTH Foods
Worth The Health (WTH Foods), a Manila-headquartered alternative protein company, has secured US$1.2 million in seed funding. 
Carlo Antonio Ng is the Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer at WTH Foods

Pickupp extends its Series A round to US$20M with fresh capital injection from Reefknot
Pickupp, an on-demand delivery and tech startup in Southeast Asia, has secured additional investments from Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek Holdings and Kuehne + Nagel. This round brings Pickupp’s total capital raised in Series A to approximately US$20 million.
Lee Chee Meng is the Co-COO at Pickupp

iSeller, the ‘Shopify of Indonesia’, nets US$8M to become a super-app for merchants
iSeller, a startup providing e-commerce and payment solutions in Indonesia, has announced the completion of a US$8 million pre-Series B financing round co-led by Openspace Ventures and AppWorks.
Jimmy Petrus is the Founder & CEO at iSeller

Global VC firm Antler raises over US$300 million, expands focus to invest in startups to Series C
Singapore-headquartered global early-stage VC firm Antler has closed over US$300 million to date from Schroders, Vækstfonden, and Phoenix Group.
Magnus Grimeland is the Founder & CEO at Antler

Singapore-based BioTech startup AUM Biosciences bags US$27 million in Series A
ntlerAUM Biosciences, a Singapore-based global clinical-stage biotech company, has completed its US$27 million Series A financing round.
Vishal Doshi is the CEO and Co-Founder at AUM Biosciences

Thai social data analytics firm Wisesight secures $7m funding
Wisesight, a social media analytics soluti Thailand, has secured more than US$7 million in a Series B financing round co-led by Thai bank Krungsri’s VC arm Krungsri on startup in Finnovate and Japanese IT solutions giant TechMatrix.
Kla Tangsuwan is the CEO at Wisesight

Thai accounting SaaS startup FlowAccount nets US$4M to scale its small biz offering
Thai accounting SaaS firm FlowAccount has raised US$4 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India, Tech In Asia reports.
Kridsada Chutinaton is the CEO & Co-founder at FlowAccount

SG proptech startup Ohmyhome to boost data-matching technology after raising $5m
Ohmyhome, a one-stop-shop property platform based in Singapore, has secured US$5 million in a fresh round of financing from local investor Swettenham Blue.
Rhonda Wong is the CEO at Ohmyhome