Financial Services
Hong Kong’s Airwallex raises $200m at $4b valuation
Hong Kong-based Airwallex has raised a $200 million Series E round led by Lone Pine Capital at a valuation of $4 billion. A $300 million Series D in March valued the company at $2.6 billion.
Invesco commits $100m to India's Pine Labs
Invesco has announced a $100 million commitment to Indian financial technology provider Pine Labs. It comes two months after the company closed a $600 million pre-IPO round.
Indonesia payments player Xendit raises $150m Series C
Indonesian digital payments infrastructure provider Xendit has raised a $150 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management at a valuation of around $1 billion.
Square Peg leads $55m round for Indonesia's Pluang
Square Peg Capital has led a $55 million Series B round for Indonesian micro-savings and micro-investment app Pluang.
India's Leap Finance raises $55m Series C
US education technology specialist Owl Ventures has led a $55 million Series C round for Leap Finance, an Indian start-up that helps students pay for overseas studies.
PayPal to acquire Japan's Paidy for $2.7b
PayPal has agreed to buy Japan’s Paidy, a specialist in deferred e-commerce payments backed by several private equity investors, for about JPY300 billion ($2.7 billion).
Thailand insurtech player Sunday gets $45m Series B
Thailand-based insurance technology start-up Sunday has received $45 million in Series B funding from a group of investors including Tencent Holdings.
Naspers-owned PayU to buy India's BillDesk for $4.7b
PayU, a payments provider owned by South African conglomerate Naspers, has agreed to acquire 100% of Indian payments app BillDesk for $4.7 billion, setting up several private equity exits.
Australia insurance start-up raises $31m Series B
New Zealand venture capital firm Movac has led a $31 million Series B round for Australian insurance technology provider Open.
Deal focus: EmergeVest turns to Lucy for financial inclusion
EmergeVest has made a seed investment in Lucy, a Singapore-based neobank that focuses on home-based micro-entrepreneurs and Southeast Asia’s legions of foreign domestic workers
Affirma backs India's Belstar Microfinance
Affirma Capital has contributed INR3 billion ($40.8 million) to a INR3.5 billion funding round for India’s Belstar Microfinance, supported by existing investors Muthoot Finance and Maj Invest.
Kedaara, Partners Group complete Aavas sell-downs
Kedaara Capital and Partners Group have made partial exits from Aavas Financiers, the mortgage business they carved out from Indian non-banking finance company Au Financiers in 2016 and took public two years later.
Faering leads $40m Series C for India fintech start-up
Indian private equity firm Faering Capital has led a $40 million Series C round for stock trading and thematic portfolio platform Smallcase, with support from Amazon and Premji Invest.
Start-up profiles: Digital banking, embedded finance, crypto banking
The Philippines’ Tonik breaks ground in neo-banking; India’s YAP finds new ways to connect banks with their customers; Singapore’s Matrixport scales fast with decentralized finance
Start-up profiles: Infrastructure, insurance, data, payments
Singapore’s Fireblocks tokenizes traditional banks; India’s PolicyBazaar mulls the future of insurance; China’s Rong360 diversifies through data; Cambodia’s Clik targets a payments frontier
Start-up profiles: Transfers, risk, marketplaces
Singapore’s Thunes rethinks remittances for an enterprise clientele; China’s IceKredit brings data privacy to credit scoring; India’s OfBusiness gravitates towards a healthy loans segment
Blockchain: Going mainstream
The most disruptive technology in financial services is also the most esoteric and misunderstood. As a long, speculative uptake phase unfolds, investors are coming to terms with the future
NFTs: Spirits in an invisible world
The use of blockchain to create digital assets has evolved from the mass circulation of ethereal, volatile, and interchangeable tokens into something that feels much more real
CoinDCX raises $90m, becomes India’s first crypto unicorn
B Capital Group has led a $90 million Series C round for Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX at a valuation of $1.1 billion, making it the country’s first crypto unicorn.
Lightspeed leads $35m round for Indonesia crypto player
Lightspeed Venture Partners has led a $35 million Series A extension for Pintu, one of Indonesia’s leading cryptocurrency wallets and trading platforms. It follows a $6 million tranche in May.
Deal focus: GA backs VNLife’s two-pronged fintech play
VNLife is not alone in trying to build value-added services onto a payment platform in Vietnam, but it is unusual in being able to rely on a profitable B2B digital banking business while figuring out monetization
India's BharatPe achieves $2.8b valuation on $370m Series E
Indian payments player BharatPe has raised $370 million in Series E funding led by Tiger Global Management. The $2.85 valuation means the company joins the country’s fast-growing collection of tech unicorns.
PE-backed Policybazaar, Nykaa file for India IPOs
Insurance portal PolicyBazaar and online-offline cosmetics retailer Nykaa are the latest PE-backed businesses to file for India IPOs in a groundswell domestic public market support for tech start-ups.
Asia digital assets platform Matrixport hits $1b valuation
Matrixport, a two-year-old crypto financial services platform based in Singapore, has closed a $100 million Series C round at a valuation of $1 billion.