Hi, everyone. Taro here with the first issue of Startup Wire for 2022.
With many taking time off over the last week or so, it was a good time to catch up on things we didn’t have time to do during the year, such as building side projects or binging TV shows (I finally watched Squid Game). We hope everyone is back energized and ready to tackle 2022 head on.
We have some exciting ideas lined up to expand on what we have started with Startup Wire. Our team is building new ways to help startups and investors, so keep an eye out for our announcements.
The Post Up
Startups Currently Raising Funds
Country: Indonesia
Target: USD 100,000, seed
Mamang Sayur is an interactive social commerce platform for daily necessities and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), with a collective-buying system.
Country: Singapore
Target: USD 500,000, pre-seed
Vision Direct Club’s virtual platform sends eye care specialists and services directly to patrons’ locations. Its digital service allows users to book a session with an optometrist, matching their location and the date and time according to their convenience.
Country: Indonesia
Target: USD 500,000, pre-seed
Mounev is an online learning system for education institutions and companies looking for ways to train their staff in a cost-efficient and customized method.
Nothing But Net
Recent Startup Wins
- Prosa.ai was announced as the winner of the Alibaba Cloud x KrASIA Global Startup Accelerator Indonesia Demo Day. The Indonesian startup develops natural language processing technology for the Bahasa Indonesia language.
- Food Market Hub, an F&B management platform headquartered in Malaysia, closed its Series A extended round with USD 8.5 million to finish 2021 on a high note.
- Startup Oi, a talent matching platform for tech engineers, closed its USD 1 million pre-seed round, led by January Capital, kicking off 2022 in the best way possible.
- Indonesian startup eFishery, which provides solutions for fishermen, such as a smart feeding system, announced it had achieved 800% growth in 2021, which included helping more than 29,000 farmers with their fish harvests.
Pick & Roll
Interesting Drops From the Week
- Ninja Van board member and investor John Tan shared the principles the startup followed that helped it grow to what it is today. [via@therealjohntan]
- PC gaming distribution platform Steam was recently blocked in China due to unspecified “illicit activities.” Its China-specific version remains online, with nearly all games removed.
- Here’s an interesting piece by Pui Yan Leung at Vertex Ventures about climatech investment within the Southeast Asian context. [viaVertex Ventures]
- Hyundai announced it will stop development of new internal combustion engines and focus on electric vehicles, closing its engine R&D centre. [via The Korea Economic Daily]
- With former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of four charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, it is time to revisit the completely cringe interview she did on CNBC in 2015. Holmes doubled down on the health startup’s fake products, on the day a damaging report was published by The Wall Street Journal. [via CNBC]