A Recap On What Happened This Week: Asian Startup News Overview (June 31st - July 7th)

Indeed, the first week of July was an excellent start, as we saw some Asian startups expand their global presence through funding and investments. Today, we can easily guess that the thriving economy and constant growth in the tech sector are the reasons that have paved the path for Asian startups to become unicorns. Previously, Asian startups were more focused on providing B2C services to individuals, whereas the prospect of new startups is now more focused on emerging technologies. According to a Google report, startups in the Asia region are more likely to investigate artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, fintech, e-commerce, health technology, and sustainability, for which it’s attracting the regional investors to invest in startups focusing on emerging technologies.

This week, we saw an ultra low-cost platform temu has begun selling to Japan, marking its first push into the Asian market whereas Bitkub has agreed to sell a 9.22% ownership in the company to Asphere Innovations, a local game publisher, for a stunning $17.8 million.

The Five Startups that gained fortune this week are-:

Temu

PDD Holdings' ultra-low-cost e-commerce platform Temu has begun selling to Japan, marking its first push into the Asian market.

The marketplace, a sister site of the Chinese discount e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, sends everything from clothing to electronics and household items to customers worldwide at rock-bottom costs, primarily from Chinese merchants.

Temu's website reveals that Japan is now one of the nations to which it supplies.

Temu and PDD Holdings did not react immediately to requests for comment on their recent expansion or future intentions.

Freakins Nets

Freakins, a denim fashion business for Gen Z women based in India, has secured $4 million in a seed round sponsored by Matrix Partners India and Blume Ventures. Over 30 angel investors, including Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Navin Agarwal (Sonal Apparels), Chakradhar Gade (Country Delight), Utkrishta Kumar (Meesho), Asish Mohapatra (OfBusiness), and significant influencers like Aayush Wadhwa, Tarini Shah, and Agastya Shah, contributed to the round.

According to Freakins, the D2C brand will use the capital to grow its omnichannel presence, boost operations, and increase consumer salience. With a heavy emphasis on collaborations with creators, it also intends to develop exclusive collections tailored to the tastes of our customers.

Needle

Needle, a Singapore-based AI marketer, has raised US$1.2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round spearheaded by local accelerator Iterative. In addition to Rainforest Founder JJ Chai, Ethos Fund and Goldbell Financial Services participated. The cash will be used to expand the startup's personnel, which will include data scientists, AI trainers, and engineers.

“It’s never been easier to start a business, and it’s also never been harder to grow one. New brands need to find customers on multiple channels and transact with them on multiple platforms. On average, they are using over ten tools which is also a lot of data to make sense of and a lot of decisions to make. At Needle, we want to help founders cut through the noise, make sense of their data, and point them where to focus,” said Kiyan Foroughi, CEO and Co-Founder of Needle.

Aquatech

In accordance with regulatory documents from VentureCap Insights, Indonesian aquatech business eFishery has received an extra US$47.7 million for its series D financing. This puts the total amount collected for the round to over US$176 million, valuing the founders' shares at more than US$200 million.

eFishery, founded in 2013 by Gibran Huzaifah and Muhammad Ihsan Akhirulsyah, provides aquaculture producers with solutions such as B2B and supply marketplaces, smart feeding systems, and finance. According to a collaborative analysis with the University of Indonesia, the company contributed US$228.6 million to Indonesia's domestic aquaculture sector's gross domestic product in 2022.

Bitkub

As stated by recent regulatory documents, Bitkub has agreed to sell a 9.22% ownership in the company to Asphere Innovations, a local game publisher, for a stunning $17.8 million. This capital injection is expected to strengthen Bitkub's financial stability, allowing it to continue operations in a volatile market.

Bitkub's fundamental offering is a user-friendly platform for crypto enthusiasts to trade digital assets. This Thai-based FinTech firm obtained a license from Thailand's Ministry of Finance in 2019, which adds to its legitimacy in the crypto market.

The freshly acquired capital of $17.8m is expected to help Bitkub in expanding its digital asset services throughout Thailand. With over 6.2m people owning crypto in the country, as of last year, Bitkub stands to gain significantly from this digital asset boom.