Apart from the recent $60 million investment, the healthcare startup also received $30 million in funding from IFC in December. This amount was also raised to fund MiCare’s $100 million expansion plans into Southeast Asian regions by potential acquisitions of TPA providers. The money will also be used for capital expenditures and IT infrastructure development in countries where the company is already operating. IFC currently has 600 employees operating in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

At present, the company is in charge of processing over $400 million worth of mediclaims annually. MiCare has more than 13 million members that represent insurance companies and corporate clients in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Presently, the company serves 45 insurers and 6,500 clients in the same region. The company also helps build connectivity applications and infrastructure that aids the healthcare sector to exchange transaction information online. Founded in 2006, MiCare started with just 200 members as a third-party administrator of medical claims.

The post Singapore’s MiCare secures $60 mn for SE Asia expansion appeared first on International Finance.

Anthony Tan said in the email, “There is speculation again about a Gojek deal. Our business momentum is good, and as with any market consolidation rumours, we are the ones in a position to acquire.”

Both companies, which compete with each other in various sectors, have been waging a price war against each other since last year when it comes to ride-hailing and food delivery sectors. A potential merger deal between Grab and Gojek will be the biggest tech merger in Southeast Asia. Grab, which is based in Singapore, is valued at $15 billion. Whereas, Indonesia-based Gojek is valued at $10 billion.

Speculations about a potential merger began earlier this year. Back in March, it was reported that Gojek wanted a 50 percent stake in the merged entity; however, Grab wanted to hold a controlling stake. During the period, Grab President Ming Maa and Gojek chief executive Andre Soelistyo held a meeting with regard to the potential merger.

However, responding to a media inquiry, a Gojek spokesperson said there are no such plans as of yet and the recent media reports regarding discussions of a potential merger with Grab are not accurate. During the same period, it was also reported that the Indonesian Consumer Foundation has revealed its disapproval when it comes to the potential merger between Southeast Asian ride-hailing giants.

The post Investors urge ride-hailing giant Grab and Gojek to merge appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Lanturn was led by East Ventures and CoCoon Ignite Ventures.

Other investors that also participated in the round include individual investors Alex Turnbull, RVP Equity managing partner Saki Georgiadis, Meiyen Tan, the head of Oon & Bazul’s restructuring and insolvency practice, White & Case Asia-Pacific partner Chris Kelly and Next Billion Ventures venture partner Tiang Lim Foo.

With regard to the investment in Lanturn, East Ventures managing partner and co-founder Batara Eto said in a statement, “We are pleased to support solutions that enable agility and adaptability among businesses, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and Lanturn provides that by leveraging technology to streamline corporate services and empower businesses to make more informed data-driven decisions.”

Lanturn’s services allow its clients to automate their administrative work such as bookkeeping. It’s clients include mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups that can’t afford to hire enough manpower to carry out all of its administrative services manually and in a smooth manner.

According to Lanturn, it currently has nearly 400 clients. It focuses on startups and SMEs, acting as a ‘one-stop online corporate services’ solution.

A recent report by PwC revealed that the first half of 2020 saw tech startups in Singapore raise $2.4billion in funding.

Singapore’s startup funding jumped to a record $7.3 billion in 2018, however, it dropped to $4.75 billion in 2019. The current year proves to be resilient, despite the pandemic.

The post Singapore-based Lanturn raises $3 mn for tech upgrade appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for PayMango was led by US-based financial services company Stripe. Existing investors such as Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital, besides new investor Bedrock Capital, also participated in the round.

In this context, Noah Pepper, Stripe’s APAC Business Lead told the media, “We’ve been impressed with the PayMongo team and the speed at which they’ve made digital payments more accessible for so many businesses across the Philippines. We fully support their vision to bring many more Filipino businesses online. Given the disruption caused by Covid-19, a service like theirs is simply vital for the country’s businesses and economic future.”

The Manila-based startup offers online payments API for businesses in the Philippines, which can be integrated into websites and apps, allowing them to accept payments from different bank cards and digital wallets.

According to co-founder and chief executive Francis Plaza, PayMongo has processed a total of almost $20 million in payments since its inception, and grown at an average of 60 percent since the start of the year. The company was established in 2019 and raised $2.7 million in seed funding.

Earlier this month, Jack Ma’s Alibaba Cloud joined the alliance of fintech companies in the Philippines to contribute to the growth of its fintech industry, media reports said.

Fintech Alliance.ph chairman Lito Villanueva told the media, “Their membership came an opportune time as we enjoin all stakeholders to do its share in helping cushion the impact of the pandemic, while preparing for the new world order co-existing with Covid-19.”

The post Philippines-based fintech PayMongo secures $12 mn in Series A funding appeared first on International Finance.

The funds are provided by South Korean VC firm InterVest and existing backer VinaCapital Ventures.

Christian Nguyen, founder and chief executive of Wee Digital told the media, “We had a meeting with InterVest in April, but thanks to shared trust and vision of the company’s enormous market potential and technological background, we were able to do so. The investment is very fast.”

Wee Digital applies artificial intelligence (AI) and biometrics to authenticate transactions and offer greater security to its customers while carrying out financial transactions through the use of face recognition technology, fingerprint recognition and PIN.

With regard to the funding in Wee Digital, Don Lam, co-founder and CEO of VinaCapital Group told the media, “The Vietnamese startup market continues to attract more and more venture capital funds in the Asia Pacific region. Glad InterVest noticed Wee Digital, one of the most promising startups in Vietnam in the fintech sector, possessing the traits that investors often look for in the early stages of a startup, an experienced and ambitious founder, strong execution capacity, disruptive product, and vast untapped market. ”

Earlier this year, Vietnam-based fintech startup F88 has secured around $6 million in a fresh funding round, led by Mekong Enterprise Fund III and Granite Oak, the media reported.

The funding raised by F88 will be used to help the startup expand its network and branches and at the same time accelerate growth, according to its chief executive officer Phung Anh Tuan.

The post Vietnamese fintech Wee Digital raises funds for expansion appeared first on International Finance.

Investors who participated in the funding round include Softbank Ventures Asia, Pavilion Capital, Redbadge Pacific and Indonesian conglomerate Emtek.

Existing investors such as EV  Growth  and  Jungle  Ventures also took part in the funding round for Waresix.

With regard to the funding, Andree Susanto, chief executive officer at Waresix told the media, “We are excited to on-board a group of high-quality long-term investors and partners that have committed to support Waresix in our journey to be the new engine for trade and commerce growth in Indonesia. The capital will be invested to develop the most robust logistics technology infrastructure in South East Asia, and further build out our world-class team to help us seize a large market opportunity.”

Waresix is one of the leading logistics tech platform in Southeast Asia in the trucking and warehousing segments.

The startup currently serves more than 250 corporate clients in the commodities, fast-moving consumer goods, industrial consumables, infrastructure, and retail sectors.

Waresix’s list of investors include Unilever, Indofood, Siam Cement Group, Wings, JD.ID and numerous other MNCs.

It operates more than 40,000 trucks and 375 warehouses in more than 100 cities and towns across Indonesia.

Earlier this year, another logistics startup based in Indonesia called Kargo raised around $31 million in a funding round to help the firm fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors who took part in the funding round for Kargo include Tenaya Capital,  Sequoia India, Mirae Asset Management and Intudo Ventures.

Reportedly, Kargo will also use the funds to scale up its business, besides using it to fight the coronavirus crisis.

The post Indonesian logistics startup Waresix closes $100 mn funding round appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Incomlend was led by Sequoia Capital India. France-based CMA CGM Group, one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics firms, also participated in the round, Incomlend revealed.

According to the startup it helps exporters receive payments at an early stage whereas typically it takes week or months sometimes for the whole process to be completed.

Similarly, importers using Incomlend’s platform are able to minimise the risk of supply chain disruption and set more favorable payment terms.

The impact is acute in high-growth Asia where small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) — which account for more than 95 percent of all businesses and provide two out of three private-sector jobs in the region — need more financing options to meet their growing demand. Further, low-interest rates in Asia — and negative rates in Europe — are prompting many global investors to seek alternative asset classes,” Incomlend said in a statement.

According to Morgan Terigi, co-founder and chief executive of Incomlend, the startup has processed more than $330 million in financing and covered invoice finance trades across 50 countries to date.

Abheek Anand, managing director at Sequoia Capital India also said in a statement, “The massive trade finance gap, combined with declining global interest rates and the high credit quality of Incomlend’s customers, has helped them create a compelling business that helps solve one of the most important challenges faced by global SMEs.”

The post Singporean trade finance startup Incomlend secures $20 mn funding appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Clik was led by Openway and Poems, the investment holding company of Phillip Capital.

Many global as well as Cambodian investors also participated in the funding round.

According to the startup, it will use the funds to scale its product engineering and customer service teams. It will also use the funds to officially launch in Cambodia by the end of 2020.

Matthew Tippetts, chief executive officer and co-founder of Clik told the media, “The closing of our seed round is a sign that investors are eager to back future proof platforms for the ‘new normal’ that will inevitably exist post-COVID. It also shows that investors see attractive opportunities for investment in Cambodia, especially in start-ups with robust regional potential.”

“After two years of scaling up and defining the fundamentals of our regional market strategy, we’re ready to accelerate our growth with the closure of our seed round. Our goal here is to offer merchants and consumers a much-needed and attractive digital alternative to cash,” he added.

Established in 2016, the startup currently has nearly 2,500 merchants and five financial institutions in its beta programmes. Reportedly, it  also has more than 56,000 merchants through their partners.

Its list of partners include retailers such as Ucare Pharmacy, convenience shop brand Kiwimart and local conglomerate Chip Mong Retail.

Clik is also integrating its platform with the National Bank of Cambodia as a part of the central bank’s Digital Currencies initiative.

The post Cambodia-based fintech startup Clik secures $3.7 seed funding appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Gero was led by venture capital firm Bulba Ventures.

Other existing investors of Gero also participated in its funding round.

The deal will see co-founder of Bulba Ventures Yury Melnichek joined Gero’s Board of Directors.

Gero’s founder Peter Fedichev said in the statement, “We are happy with the recognition and support from these strategic investors who themselves are acknowledged leaders in the fields of AI and biotechnology. This will help us attain the necessary knowledge at the junction of biological sciences and AI/ML technologies that is necessary for the radical acceleration of drug discovery.”

“We hope that the technology will soon lead to a meaningful healthspan extension and quality of life improvement,” he added.

The Singapore-based startup, which develops new drugs to combat aging and other disorders, has raised around $7.5 million in funding so far.

According to Gero, it will use the latest funds to further develop its AI platform for analysing clinical and genetic data to find treatments for “complicated” diseases, such as age-related chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and others.

Last month, Singapore-based healthtech startup Plano announced a strategic alliance with Japan’s Santen Pharmaceuticals, to tackle myopia.

Myopia is one of the most common health problems in the world, affecting an estimated 2 billion people, or about 28 percent of the world’s population. The number of people with myopia is expected to increase to 5 billion by the year 2050, which is about half of the world’s population.

The post Singapore-based biotech startup Gero raises 42.2 mn funding appeared first on International Finance.

Earlier this year, the company also raised around $700 million from Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Both MUFG and Grab will develop financial services products such as insurance and loans. The same products will be available through Grab’s mobile app.
While MUFG will oversee the app’s personal loans and insurance offerings, Grab will make use of its data on customer preferences to suggest loans tailored to specific customers.

Another reason for MUFG to invest in Grab is its strong artificial intelligence systems and data analysis skills. Leveraging Grab’s technology will prove to be beneficial for MUFG as it competes with neobanks and fintech startups in its home market.

Grab also announced that it will let go around 5 percent of its current workforce, which is around 360 employees to help the company survive the Covid-19 crisis.

Grab chief executive officer Anthony Tan recently made the announcement to his employees.
With regard to the job cut, a spokesperson from Grab told TechCrunch that the company does not face any capitalisation issues. The layoffs are a part of a broader plan for Grab to become a leaner and more efficient organisation.

In the month of April, Grab has announced the appointment of Peter Oey as its new chief financial officer (CFO).

Before joining Grab, Peter Oey served as CFO at legaltech company LegalZoom. He also held a similar position at US-based consumer internet business MyLife. He also brings in the experience of working over 12 years at Activision Blizzard.

Tags: Grab, Singapore, Southeast Aisa, Singapore startups, Grab funding, Southeast Asia startups, Covid-19

The post Grab raises $200 mn from Seoul-based Stic Investment appeared first on International Finance.