Weekly Funding Roundup – Asia
Indonesian Edtech Startup Cakap Raises $10 Million From Centauri Fund, Singapore’s Heritas Capital
Indonesian edtech startup Cakap raised $10 million in a funding round led by Singapore-based Heritas Capital and Centauri Fund, a fund backed by Telkom Indonesia’s MDI Ventures and Korean investment firm KB Investment.
Cakap aims to use the funds to improve its technology by exploring the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence that provides more personalized learning for users through adaptive learning. It also plans to expand its reach to second- and third-tier cities in Indonesia.
BrioHR raises $1.3M ahead of Y Combinator’s demo day
As the next Y Combinator demo day approaches, more startups from the current Winter 2021 batch are showing up in our inboxes. One of the most interesting from the mix is BrioHR, which is building human resources (HR) software for Southeast Asia.
The company fits into a theme I’ve noticed amongst startups, namely a focus on taking proven software genre approaches to specific parts of the world, localizing them and building in-region winners.
Philippine B2B e-commerce platform Growsari closes Series C round at $77.5m
GrowSari, a Philippine-based B2B e-commerce platform backed by Tencent and private equity major KKR, has announced raising $77.5 million in Series C funding that will fuel its national expansion.
The Series C round, which brings GrowSari’s total funds raised to date to $110 million, was led by KKR and backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Pavilion Capital of Singapore’s Temasek Group.
Also read: Weekly Funding Roundup – India
Plant Cartridge raises US$3M in seed funding to expand smart farming operations
Malaysia-based agritech startup Plant Cartridge announced that it has secured a US$3 million seed funding round from 500 Global and a private group of business conglomerates.
In a press statement, the company said that it plans to use the funding to expand its operations by 1,000,000 square feet, and develop new advanced farming solutions that are sustainable, scalable and accessible.
QunaSys Raises $10M in its Series B Funding Led by VGI to Expand Overseas Markets Further as a Japan-Based Quantum Computer Software Startup
PsiQuantum and QunaSys, Inc. (QunaSys) announced a joint research project to assess the power of fault-tolerant quantum computing for industrial chemistry calculations aimed at accelerating the development of sustainable materials. JSR Corporation (JSR) of Japan joined the project as an alpha customer and will evaluate quantum computing for advancements in the manufacture of photoresists, elastomers, plastics, and reagents.
