Early-stage
Australia hydrogen player gets $29m Series A
Australia’s Virescent Ventures, a VC firm spun out earlier this year from Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), has led a AUD 40m (USD 29m) Series A round for local hydrogen energy start-up Hysata.
Sarmaycar, Shorooq back Pakistan fintech player OneLoad
OneLoad, a Pakistan-based digital financial services platform established by local IT player Systems Limited and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has raised USD 11m in funding.
Portfolio: CBC Group and Ensem Therapeutics
CBC Group plans to allocate USD 300m from its latest flagship fund to a biotech incubation platform. Artificial intelligence-enabled drug discovery player Ensem Therapeutics is an example of what it wants to achieve.
China biotech player Sironax raises $200m Series B
Gaorong Capital and Yunfeng Capital have led a USD 200m Series B round for China’s Sironax, a drug developer targeting age-related degenerative diseases.
Qiming, Quan lead $120m Series B for China's OriCell
Qiming Venture Partners and Quan Capital have led a USD 120m Series B round for OriCell Therapeutics, a China-based drug developer that is working on CAR-T cell therapies that target cancer.
Deal focus: Creador goes early in digital banking
Only six digital banks are licensed to operate in the Philippines. Enthused by the prospect of helping build one of these select few from the ground up, Creador moved fast to back UnoAsia
Seed platforms: Fishing minnows from ocean liners
Accelerators and seed investors are increasingly pursuing global mandates and building out large, international teams. The challenges are starting to cast shadows over the benefits, but it’s early days
Creador backs Philippines digital bank
Creador has made a rare early-stage investment, leading a pre-Series A round of USD 11m for UnoAsia, operator of Uno Digital Bank, one of only six licensed digital banks in the Philippines.
B Capital, Kunlun back China process mining start-up
B Capital Group and Kunlun Capital have led a CNY 135 (USD 20m) Series A extension for China’s Prothentic Technology, a process mining specialist also known as Wangfanxin.
Deal focus: Prosus looks to aggregate India’s fruit farmers
B2B marketplaces are the prevalent theme in Prosus Ventures’ agricultural technology investments in Asia. However, as fruit specialist Vegrow demonstrates, supply chain dynamics are not uniform
Australian compostable cling film business gets $17m Series A
Great Wrap, an Australia-based start-up that manufacturers compostable cling film from food waste, has raised AUD 24m (USD 17m) in Series A funding.
China VCs flock to nine-month-old CPU chip designer
Cix Technology, a China-based supplier of CPU chips, has raised a pre-Series-A funding round led by Nio Capital and Qiming Venture Partners. The size was not disclosed but the company claims to have raised USD 100m since inception.
Japanese autonomous driving player Tier IV raises $300m
Japanese autonomous driving technology developer Tier IV has raised a USD 87m Series B round from strategic investors and received a USD 183m government grant.
Sequoia leads Series A for China automotive chipmaker
SiEngine Technology, a China-based developer of chips for the automotive industry, has raised around CNY 1bn (USD 148m) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital China.
Australia's mx51 secures $22.5m Series B
Mx51, an Australia-based payments technology platform that emerged as a partnership with Westpac, has raised AUD 32.5m (USD 22.4m) in Series B funding.
Indonesia's Pintarnya raises $14.3m seed round
Indonesia’s Pintarnya, a one-stop platform for blue collar workers, has closed a USD 14.3m seed round backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital India, and East Ventures.
India blockchain player raises $100m Series A
India’s 5ire, a one-year-old blockchain infrastructure provider focused on promoting sustainable crypto-relate practices, has raised USD 100m in Series A funding at a valuation of USD 1.5bn.
Glade Brook leads $20m round for Indonesia's Kitabeli
Glade Brook Capital Partners has led a USD 20m round for Kitabeli, which claims to be the largest fast-moving consumer goods social commerce platform in Indonesia’s lower-tier cities.
Australia customer reviews specialist gets $26m Series A
Okendo, an Australia-founded customer review platform for e-commerce brands, has received USD 26m in Series A funding led by US venture capital firm Base10 Partners.
India SaaS player Detect Technologies closes $28m Series B
Detect Technologies, an India-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) start-up with a suite of artificial intelligence-enabled products that help enterprise customers assess risk exposure, has raised USD 28m in Series B funding.
China GPU chip developer Iluvatar raises $149m
Iluvatar CoreX, a Shanghai-based designer of chips used in cloud computing, has raised CNY 1bn (USD 149m) across two additional tranches of Series C funding. The first tranche closed on CNY 1.2bn in March 2021.
Global Brain leads $14.5m round for Japan's SmartBank
Japan’s Global Brain has led a JPY 2bn (USD 14.5m) Series A round for SmartBank, a local start-up that provides prepaid Visa cards and accompanying expense management apps.
IDG leads $100m Series A for China's Xpeng Robotics
IDG Capital has led a USD 100m Series A round for Xpeng Robotics, a smart robot developer affiliated to US and Hong Kong-listed Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Xpeng.
China autonomous road sweeping start-up raises $30m
Chinese autonomous road sweeping start-up Autowise.ai has raised an extended Series B round of CNY 200m (USD 30m) featuring a VC unit of Shanghai-listed new energy company Shanshan Group.