A Recap on What Happened This Week: Asian Startup News Overview (June 5th -June 9th)

The previous month was quite eventful, with numerous interest rate fluctuations occurring all over the world. Now, we are already in the second week of June, witnessing growing bilateral relationships among Asian nations that aid in maintaining a good business environment within the Asian startup ecosystem. This has resulted in a steady flow of foreign capital to various startups, hastening their growth

This week a lot of fintech startups took the spotlight with their progress. With consumers getting more and more reliant on online payments, the fintech markets are catering to that demand and are delivering quality services in that regard. Let’s see a few Startups which made progress this week.

Lentra

Lentra, a fintech company, reported raising $27 million in a fundraising round headed by MUFG Bank and Dharana Capital on Wednesday. During its most recent investment round, which took place on November 22, the software as a service firm raised $60 million, with the help of its current backers Bessemer Venture Partners, SIG Venture Capital, and Citi Ventures.

Lentra announced the "raising of $27 Million as a part of their extended series B round led by MUFG Bank and Dharana Capital" in a press release.

Lentra has received funding from MUFG Bank's Ganesha investment fund for Indian companies.

River

Investing in River’s new round were existing investors Lowercarbon Capital, Toyota Ventures, Maniv Mobility, and Trucks VC. With deliveries expected to begin in August 2023, It's newly acquired funding is expected to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and power its impending market launch.

Bangalore, June 6, 2023 Al Futtaim Group, a multi-national behemoth based in Dubai, led a $15 million financing round in electric vehicle producer River. The company, which has five operating divisions (automotive, retail, real estate, healthcare, and financial services), is present in over 20 nations and employs over 33,000 people in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Policystreet

Under its Dana Impak mandate, Malaysia's sovereign fund KhazanahNasionalBerhad (Khazanah) recently led a Series B funding round for a Malaysian domestic insurance technology (InsurTech) startup, PolicyStreet, garnering a total of $15.3 million.

According to a statement issued by PolicyStreet on Tuesday, its recent fundraising round received strong support from other local and international investors, including Altara Ventures, Gobi Partners, and Spiral Ventures.

Kilde

Kilde, a Singapore-based digital private loan platform, secured a $1.12 million seed round investment from Big Sky Capital, Borderless Capital, AXL Ventures, Algorand Foundation, and angel investors.

Kilde stated in a statement that the seed money acquired will allow the company to accelerate its growth trajectory and further develop its proprietary technology.

Kilde intends to use the funds to improve the functionality of its platform, scale its operations, and increase its market reach.

Additional Mention: G20

The StartUp20 engagement group meeting in Goa concluded on Sunday with a call to action for G20 nations to invest $1 trillion in startup ecosystems by 2030, according to a top official.

Dr Chintan Vaishnav, chair of the StartUp20 Engagement Group, told reporters that the two-day meeting in Goa ended on a positive note, with all participating delegations agreeing on the policy communique drafted during the conference.

"The communique will be adopted at the Gurugram meeting next month." "We have issued a call to action to the G20 countries to allocate USD one trillion to start-up ecosystems by 2030," he said.

This was the third meeting of the engagement group, with the first two rounds held in Hyderabad, Telangana, and Sikkim, respectively. Vaishnav said.

'"We also posted the policy communique on the StartUp20 website to gauge public reaction. This is a true example of 'jan bhagidari' (public participation). "The draught policy communique includes recommendations for five task forces: foundations, alliances, finance, inclusion, and sustainability," he explained.