A Recap On What Happened This Week: Asian Startup News Overview (20th March- 24th March)

The financial year is about to end in a week and went well with several industries. This week has witnessed the synergy of various sectors, and the prime significance is given to healthcare. Thoughtfull, the start-up based in Asia received $4m from Sheares Healthcare Group, and others participants were also included in the round. Also, Mindset Health, which helps people with chronic ailments, has raised $12m to foster the growth and development of its digital hypnotherapy apps and has also taken the initiative to expand its markets to meet global demands.

The other major advancement is that 30N Ventures saw Asia as a developing market and introduced a fund to accelerate major sectors across Asian nations.

Here is the list of 5 Start-ups that excelled this week.

30N Ventures

Chile-based venture capital firm 30N Ventures has launched a $50-million debut fund to back startups in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The fund will primarily invest in late seed and Series A stages within the fintech, foodtech, e-commerce, marketplaces, and logistics sectors.

“The fund was designed and built to be investing in emerging markets and we will be investing at least 30-40% in Southeast Asia,” co-founder and managing partner Tomas Denecken

Thoughtfull

Thoughtfull, another digital mental health platform focused on Asia, has raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round led by Sheares Healthcare Group. Sheares is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek.

Thoughtfull marks Sheares’ first investment in mental healthcare in Asia. Sheares recently exited from a U.S.-based senior care company called Iora Health that was acquired by One Medical.

The round, which Thoughtfull said was oversubscribed, also saw participation from returning investors Vulpes Investment Management, The Hive Southeast Asia, global family offices and founding members of companies like Grab and Zalora.

Splyt

Kakao Mobility, the ride-hailing subsidiary of South Korean messaging and internet giant Kakao, has made its first acquisition as it looks to raise its international profile. It has acquired Splyt, a startup out of London that works with apps in areas like travel, ride-hailing and finance to help them build out “super app” strategies by integrating other services.

Kakao Mobility has already worked with Splyt, and it wants to use the asset to spur global expansion plans across Southeast Asia and Europe. Kakao Mobility currently offers limited services in about 30 markets outside of South Korea: most recently, it launched in Guam last year and Laos earlier this year.

Mindset Health

Mindset Health, a digital hypnotherapy startup based in Australia, has raised $12 million in an oversubscribed Series A financing led by King River Capital, the leading US, Australian VC investor, with investments from Tatterang's Tenmile, Yard Ventures, Matt Mullenweg (founder of Automattic, Wordpress), John Kim (founder of SendBird), Alex and Anthony Zaccaria/Nick Humphreys (Linktree founders), Sandy Kory, Banana Capital and others.

Mindset Health helps people with chronic conditions learn to manage their health via app-based audio, combining the expertise of world-class health specialists and clinical research with a proprietary scalable technology platform to deliver evidence-based, consumer-friendly digital hypnotherapy. The apps help people manage a range of health conditions anytime, anywhere.

Alder Therapeutics

In a boost to regenerative therapies for damaged hearts and eyes, Duke-NUS in Singapore has licensed two laminin-related patents to Sweden-based biotech startup Alder Therapeutics to enhance the development of Alder’s retinal and cardiac cell therapeutic products.

Both licenses originated from discoveries made by Professor Karl Tryggvason from Duke-NUS’ Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Programme, who discovered that this family of proteins can direct stem cell differentiation.