As Southeast Asian economies recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, tech players are injecting fresh capital into their local subsidiaries for growth and expansion.
Cayman-registered Bigo Inc. has injected $220 million into its Singapore subsidiary, Bigo Technology, to drive expansion in an increasingly competitive market. Bigo operates popular live-streaming app Bigo Live, video-sharing app Likee and gamecasting platform Cube TV.
Geopolitical tensions have rendered Southeast Asian markets more attractive to content platforms. Citing security and privacy concerns, India had banned Bigo Live and Likee, along with global streaming giant TikTok and dozens of other Chinese companies, in 2020.
Separately, Singapore-based Neuroncredit has issued new shares worth $45 million to its parent company Advance Intelligence Group. Neuroncredit, also known as Atome Financial, is the parent company of Indonesia’s fintech lending firm Kredit Pintar and consumer lending firm Atome Indonesia.
Kredit Pintar and Atome are strategic partners of Indonesia’s Bank Jago, a digital bank backed by the country’s largest tech conglomerate GoTo. Advance Intelligence Group and GoTo have a common investor in private equity firm Northstar Group.
Berlin-based food delivery startup Delivery Hero invested $6.5 million in its Singapore unit, which operates under the foodpanda brand, bringing its total capital injection so far this year to $25.7 million.
Other updates from DATA VANTAGE
SME-focused SaaS startup Mekari has allotted shares worth $49 million to investors that participated in its latest funding round. The round was led by Money Forward, which also took part in the company’s Series D round last year. Mekari has raised more than $110 million to date from investors including East Ventures, BEENEXT and Mandiri Capital.
Indonesia-focused logistics firm Paxel has collected $22.7 million in a Series C funding round. Astra Digital Internasional, the investment arm of local conglomerate Astra, led the round. Other investors include MDI Ventures, Central Capital Ventura, SIG, FJ Labs and Endeavor Catalyst.
Indonesia’s home decor platform Dekoruma completed the allotment of new shares worth $13.4 million last week as part of its Series C1 round. Nexter Ventures, which is backed by Thailand’s SCG Cement-Building Materials, was the biggest investor in the round with a $5 million contribution. Other investors include existing shareholders such as GDN and OCBC NISP Ventura.
Singapore-registered fintech firm TurnKey Lender has raised $8.4 million in new funding as part of its Series A round. The round was backed by investors including European venture capital firm OTB Ventures and development finance institution DEG.
Indonesia’s F&B startup Hangry allotted shares worth $6.4 million to an entity owned by the co-founders of Indian culinary brand Achha last week. Hangry had announced the acquisition of Achha earlier this year.
European venture capital firm Capricorn Partners has led other investors in funding Singapore-based big data and AI platform Finquest. The funding, which amounted to $5.5 million, comes with a rider that Finquest must achieve specific revenue targets or issue additional shares to the investors.
Singapore-based cloud communications provider Toku has raised an additional $6 million as part of its ongoing Series A funding round. The new funding will be received in two tranches, with lead investors contributing $4.5 million and others chipping in $1.5 million. The company had previously secured $5 million from DX Ventures and other investors.