Singapore has overtaken the U.S. to become the most competitive nation in the world, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). In its 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, the WEF measured the strength of 103 key indicators, such as inflation, digital skills and trade tariffs, across 141 countries. The key indicators in the report were organized into 12 pillars, which included…
South-east Asia’s (SEA) internet economy is now worth US$100 billion, and will triple to US$300 billion by 2025, an annual report on the region’s digital economy has found. Of this, US$12 billion was from Singapore – slightly over 10 per cent of the regional total. Jointly published by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, the report – released on Thursday…
Udaan, the fastest Indian startup to achieve unicorn status, has raised $585 million in its latest round of funding, valuing the online business-to-business marketplace at $2.5-3 billion. The Series D round saw investments from Tencent, Altimeter Capital, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital and Citi Ventures, the firm said on Wednesday. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global also invested…
Singapore-based co-living startup Cove has raised over US$2 million in a seed round led by Venturra, Yuj Ventures, Investigate, and Picus Capital. Local venture capital firms Aetius Capital and Found Ventures also participated in the round alongside some strategic angel investors. Cove was founded by Guillaume Castagne, formerly vice president of marketing for Lazada, along with Sophie Jokelson and Luca…
AI-POWERED food delivery startup SmartBite has recently raised approximately US$100,000 (RM418,000) via a successful equity crowdfunding campaign on the pitch IN platform. This brings a total investment of over US$700,000 for the food-tech company, which previously raised around US$300,000 from two series of funding alongside strategic investment from Magna Capital, Rhombus Food Holdings, Eric Ryd, Noodle Digital and angel investors…
An Indian SaaS startup, which is increasingly courting clients from outside of the country, just raised a significant amount of capital to expand its business. Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, which operates a cloud-based human resource management platform, said on Thursday it has raised $15 million in a new financing round. The Series B round — which moves the firm’s total raise to…
US venture firm 500 Startups and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) have entered a two-way partnership to nurture the growth of startups in Singapore and San Francisco, ESG announced in a press release on Tuesday. 500 Startups is the latest partner to join ESG's Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), a network of Singapore and overseas partners in major innovation hubs abroad. GIA is…
Singapore-based AI and big data firm Advance.ai raised US$80 million in a series C round led by private equity investor Pavilion Capital and Chinese venture capital firm Gaorong Capital (formerly Banyan Capital). Unicorn Venture and eGarden Ventures also participated in the round, alongside existing investors GSR Ventures and Vision Plus Capital. Founded in 2015, the data-driven fintech company helps businesses…
Singapore-based chemical separation technology startup SEPPURE has announced raising $2.55 million in its seed funding round backed by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm and accelerator 500 Startups. The funding round was led by US-based multi-stage venture fund SOSV and participated by Singapore government-owned innovation platform SGInnovate, Entrepreneur First, Belmond Capital, Koh Boon Hwee (Chairman of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Board…
Nine companies from Singapore have made it to Forbes Asia's inaugural Best Over A Billion list, which spotlights 200 top-performing listed companies across Asia-Pacific with revenues of US$1 billion (S$1.39 billion) or more. They are the Republic's Big Three banks - DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank - Wilmar International, CapitaLand, City Developments, Olam International, ASM Pacific Technology…