Catherine Shu
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Catherine Shu
Investment app Syfe raises $30M Series B led by returning investor Valar Ventures
Investment apps in Southeast Asia are attracting a lot of funding, and now some are raising fast follow-on rounds, too. For example, Indonesian robo-advisor app Bibit raised $65 million in May just fo
Carsome Group will acquire iCar Asia in a deal worth $200M
Southeast Asia’s car marketplace wars are going into high drive. Today Carsome Group, one of the region’s largest online used car marketplaces, said it plans to acquire listings platform iCar Asia
Vara raises $4.8M from investors like Go Ventures and Sequoia India’s Surge to digitize Indonesian SMEs’ payrolls
If you follow startup news from Indonesia, you know that the country’s estimated 60 million small businesses are a hot target for tech companies. BukuKas and BukuWarung, for example, both recently r
Dovetail, the venture studio that has worked with startups like Afterpay, is raising a new fund
Based in Sydney and Auckland, Dovetail is a full-service venture studio that works closely with founders who have a great idea, but may lack technical backgrounds. Dovetail helps them build companies
After entering Japan, Coupang continues its international expansion with Taiwan
One month after entering Japan, its first international market, Coupang has launched in Taiwan. The South Korean e-commerce giant began offering its service in Taipei City’s Zhongshan neighborhood,
Indonesian edtech startup Gredu raises $4M Series A to keep teachers, parents and students engaged with one another
Many teachers and parents in Indonesia rely on WhatsApp to keep in touch, creating “multiple groups that often become messy and highly ineffective, and result in confusion or lost threads,” says R
Obviously AI, a no code startup for data analysts, increases its seed round to $4.7M
Nirman Dave’s two startups are very different, but both have a DIY spirit. The first, called CircuiTricks and founded during his gap year after high school, created kits to teach students about elec
E-commerce logistics startup Locad gets $4.9M seed round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge
E-commerce is booming in Southeast Asia, but in many markets, the fragmented logistics industry is struggling to catch up. This means sellers run into roadblocks when shipping to buyers, especially ou
PayMaya owner Voyager Innovation raises $167M from KKR, Tencent and IFC, to launch digital bank in the Philippines
Voyager Innovations, the Manila-based owner of PayMaya, one of the Philippines’ most popular payment and financial services apps, announced today it has raised $167 million in new funding to launch
Vietnamese investment app Infina lands $2M seed round
The pandemic has spurred interest in saving and investment apps around the world, especially ones geared toward newer investors. In Southeast Asia, startups in this space that have raised funding over
Gotrade gets $7M led by LocalGlobe to let investors around the world buy fractional shares of U.S. stocks
Stock in many American companies, like Amazon, Alphabet or Tesla, can host hundreds or thousands of dollars per share. Fractional trading, or buying part of a single share through a brokerage, makes t
Viva Republica, developer of Korean financial super app Toss, raises $410M at a $7.4B valuation
Viva Republica, the Seoul-based fintech company behind Toss, a super app with more than 40 financial services, announced today it has raised $410 million at a post-money valuation of $7.4 billion. The
Australian fintech Zeller lands $50M AUD led by Spark Capital at a $400M AUD valuation
Zeller, a Melbourne-based fintech founded by former Square executives to serve small- to mid-sized businesses, has raised $50 million AUD (about $37.5 million USD) led by Spark Capital, the investment
Buy now, pay later startup Kredivo doubles its debt facility from Victory Park Capital to $200M
Kredivo announced today it has secured another $100 million debt facility from Victory Park Capital (VPC). This doubles the Indonesian digital lending and credit platform’s total warehouse financing
Vietnamese financial services app MFast gets $1.5M pre-Series A led by Do Ventures
MFast, a mobile app that lets Vietnamese users in remote areas access financial services, announced today it has raised a $1.5 million pre-Series A. The round was led by Do Ventures, with participatio
GrowSari, a B2B platform for small stores in the Philippines, adds investors like Temasek’s Pavilion Capital and Tencent
Sari-sari stores are neighborhood stores in the Philippines that usually sell daily necessities and sometimes serve as community hubs, too. Today GrowSari, a startup that is digitizing sari-sari store
eqtble, a platform that uses data analytics to create healthier workplaces, raises $2.7M seed
“People are the backbone of any organization. People are more important than the product. Without people, you don’t have a product,” says Joseph Ifiegbu, who is Snap’s former head of human res
Honey Insurance launches with $15.5M AUD, the largest seed round ever for an Australian tech startup
When Richard Joffe moved his family to Australia in 2019, he said applying for home insurance “was like traveling back in time 30 years.” “I found the sign-up process painful, the fine print was
Early-stage venture firm The Fund launches in Australia
The Fund, the early-stage investment firm focused on pre-seed and seed startups, is going Down Under for its latest expansion. The Fund was founded in New York in 2018, before launching in Los Angeles
Edge computing startup Macrometa gets $20M Series A led by Pelion Venture Partners
Macrometa, the edge computing cloud and global data network for app developers, announced today it has raised a $20 million Series A. The round was led by Pelion Venture Partners, with participation f