Startups that Made Waves this week

With the increasing chip demand, many distributors and makers have upped the ante and are catering to this market. This phenomenon has given rise to many startups in Asia revolving around these events.

This week saw a strong run for the fintech startups. Most startups focused on the fintech space and the electronics industry. We have LUNA, an Innovative startup that operates as a one-stop for a retail merchant to run his business, and Floadia Corporation, which is innovating in flash memory technology. There are many more listed below which are similar. All these startups secured funding targeting growth.

LUNA, Fintech, Indonesia

LUNA intends to use this round of funding to grow internally, expand to new cities in Indonesia, and engage in platform development to become the only SaaS platform a retail merchant requires to run their business.

TNB Aura's TNBA Scout initiative led to the closure of a financing round for LUNA, an Indonesian embedded fintech and vertical software as a service (SaaS) platform for merchants and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). According to LUNA, Seedstars and current investors 1982 Ventures, Century Oak Capital, and Prasetia Dwidharma participated in the fundraising.

LUNA is a full-stack operating system for merchants to improve their operations, payments, accounting, access to financing, supply chain, digital marketing, customer interaction, loyalty programs, human resource (HR), legal, and compliance. It was launched in late 2019. It now serves over 70 cities in Indonesia and is growing at a rate of more than 20% month on month, with over 7,000 active merchants on board.

Floadia Corporation, Electronics, Japan

Floadia Corporation, a Japan-based embedded flash memory developer, has raised roughly JPY 1.05 billion ($7.04 million) in a Series D investment. Inabata & Co., Ltd., headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka, and Cypress Capital, a Hong Kong investment firm, underwrote an allotment of capital for a total of JPY 850 million ($5.7 million), according to Floadia. The finance also comprises JPY 200 million ($1.34 million) raised from Japan Finance Corporation through venture debt (credit with equity acquisition rights) in March 2023.

Floadia has received approximately JPY 3.9 billion ($26.15 million) in funding to date from INCJ (Japanese government fund), UMC Capital (Taiwan), a subsidiary of major foundry UMC, Faraday Technology (Taiwan), a cutting-edge semiconductor design firm, and Teijin Limited, a major Japanese chemical firm. When the amount raised in this round is added together, the total amount raised to date is roughly JPY 4.95 billion ($33.19 million).

It stated that the funds raised would be used to boost sales activities promoting its current primary business, embedded flash memory intellectual property (IP) cores, to semiconductor manufacturers, as well as to improve the development of ultra-low power consumption artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator chips that use flash memory devices.

Account Labs, Blockchain, Singapore

Account Labs, a Singapore-based supplier of Web3 wallet solutions, revealed on Oct 12 that it had raised $7.7 million from lead investors Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures, among others. Account Labs said in a statement that the announcement coincides with the debut of the company's first consumer-focused app, UniPass wallet, on Polygon. The UniPass wallet software, according to the company, uses account abstraction to allow users to set up and log in to a self-custody Web3 wallet with only a Google account and top up with any Mastercard or Visa card, for a genuinely smooth and frictionless crypto finance user experience.

It was formed in 2023 due to the combination of Keystone (established in 2018) and UniPass (2021) to provide Web3 Account Abstraction solutions. Account Labs is using funding to promote the forthcoming wave of widespread crypto adoption through peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transfers, beginning with the introduction of the UniPass wallet software.

Taking advantage of the region's high acceptance rates, UniPass Wallet is targeting its initial launch and testing phase in the Philippines before rapidly extending to the rest of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Circular, SaaS, Electronics

Circular, a Y Combinator-backed Singaporean subscription service focused on high-end consumer electronics, has raised $7.6 million in venture funding. The investment round, led by AirTree Ventures, also included investors from YC Continuity Fund, Global Founders Capital, Partech Ventures, and January Capital, Circular said in a statement on Oct 9.

The investment round was also supported by famous angel investors, including the creators of PropertyGuru, investment Societies, Stashaway, Carousell, and Nutmeg, according to the announcement. Circular's overall valuation now stands at $30 million.

Circular is using these funds to expand its unique offerings in Singapore, drill deeper into product market fit, double down on its expansion in Australia, and aggressively expand its business-to-business (B2B) offering, Circular for Business, to address the underserved startup and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segments in both markets. Circular has expanded three times in the last year and expects to grow three times more in Singapore and Australia in the following year.