Data Vantage | Believe, Honest Bank and Fave pocket new funding, and other updates
Edition #167, 19 April 2022
Dear Reader,
Singapore-based personal care products startup Believe Pte bagged nearly $20 million from Venturi Partners, Accel and Jungle Ventures in a new funding round last week, its regulatory filings revealed.
Venturi Partners is a new investor in the firm.
India-focused Believe is likely to raise additional capital in the ongoing round. Its shares in the latest round were priced at $130.49 apiece, up more than two times from its previous financing in early 2021.
Top shareholders in Believe Pte Ltd
Source: DATA VANTAGE
Meanwhile, Singapore-based fintech startup Honest Bank received $10.4 million in fresh funding last week. DealStreetAsia had earlier reported that the startup has secured $17 million in additional funding from its existing shareholders.
Investors that injected the fresh funds include XYZ Venture Capital, Digital Horizon and Alumni Ventures. Honest Bank’s shares in the latest financing were priced 59% higher than its Series A round last year.
Seven deals accounted for nearly 70% of total funding in March
Seven Southeast Asian companies accounted for almost 70% of an estimated $1.4 billion of debt and equity funding raised in March, according to DealStreetAsia data.
The top fundraisers were edtech firm Emeritus, digital payments firm DANA, subsea electrical distribution company Sun Cable, e-commerce firms Sayurbox and GrowSari, HR tech Multiplier, and data analytics firm AI Rudder.
Emeritus, a Singapore-registered edtech startup, raised $350 million in debt financing from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), while Indonesian digital wallet DANA raised at least $200 million from affiliates of conglomerate Sinar Mas.
Interestingly, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, took part in two of the seven largest funding rounds in March. It invested $10 million in Indonesia’s Sayurbox as part of a $120 million round, and another $9 million in Philippine startup GrowSari’s $77.5 million Series C.
Other updates from DATA VANTAGE
Singapore-based space tech startup SpeQtral received $3.5 million from Xora Innovation, which is an early-stage investment platform of Temasek, and NUS Technology Holdings. The funding was part of an $8.3 million round announced in November 2021.
Singapore-based consumer fintech platform Fave obtained $3.5 million from parent firm Pine Labs last week. Fave has received $16 million from Pine Labs so far this year.
Delivery Hero injected an additional $1.2 million into Singapore-based restaurant tech startup TabSquare. The startup has received a total of $3.6 million from Delivery Hero, which acquired a 100% stake in TabSquare through secondary market transactions in 2021.
Tiger Global bought additional shares in B2B e-commerce platform Moglix from existing investors Rocketship.vc, SPKK Holdings and Rahul Mehta, a partner at DST Global, last week. Tiger Global currently holds a 14.7% stake in Moglix.
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