Once Lai Ching-te is inaugurated as Taiwan’s president in May, his administration will mark an unprecedented three terms of Democratic Progressive Party rule. His victory underscored the desire of voters to maintain the status quo, even as Taiwan continues to deal with the looming specter of China. Soon after he was elected in January, Lai […]

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In the middle of a long funding winter, AC Ventures’ latest news will give Southeast Asian startups hope. The Jakarta, Indonesia–based venture firm announced today it has raised $210 million, finishing the final close on its fifth fund, called ACV Fund V. Limited partners include the World’s Bank’s IFC and investors from the United States, […]

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Lai Ching-te, who won Taiwan’s presidential election last Saturday, will be facing a crossroads in the country’s technology industry when he takes office in May. Lai’s administration will be the third term of Democratic Progressive Party rule in Taiwan, and he is widely expected to continue the work of his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, when it […]

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Founded in 2007 to help IP and R&D professionals do their jobs more efficiently, Singapore-based PatSnap‘s first product was a global patent search database. Now it’s building out its suite of AI products with the launch of its AI assistant CoPilot. CoPilot lets users search patent and non-patent literature more quickly, which the company says […]

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Indonesia’s construction industry is growing quickly, driven by residential and industrial building, alongside infrastructure development plans by the government. Sourcing skilled labor is still a time-intensive process, however, and often relies on personal networks and lengthy recruitment efforts. The founders of Gravel want to change that by making it easier to find workers and other […]

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In Western markets, freight forwarders are well into digitizing their operations, but the same doesn’t hold true in Southeast Asia, say the founders of Fr8Labs. The reasons for that include the lack of localized software and a more fragmented logistics industry where SMBs dominate. Fr8Labs wants to digitize Asia’s logistics industry with its SaaS operating […]

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Textiles and garments contribute 16% of Vietnam’s total GPD, but it’s challenging for small garment brands to take advantage of the country’s manufacturing prowess. Inflow is stepping into the gap, with a platform that gives small brands visibility into manufacturers’ supply chains and the design-to-production cycle. It also helps them meet manufacturers who are willing […]

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YouTrip, a Singapore-based fintech that offers multi-currency wallet for consumers and business accounts with corporate cards for SMEs, has its eyes on growth throughout Southeast Asia after landing a Series B led by Lightspeed. The round was $50 million, and brings YouTrip’s total raised to $100 million since it launched in 2018. The new funding […]

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Created by the founder of Thunes, global digital currency payments institution Triple-A wants to close the gap between traditional finance and blockchain-based payments with its white-label solutions for businesses. It enables clients to pay in or accept crypto and get fiat money in their bank accounts the next day. Triple-A announced today it has raised […]

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Access to education in Bangladesh is filled with inequalities, say the founders of edtech 10 Minute School. Many rural areas don’t have good learning centers and as a result, students travel to capital Dhaka to prepare for their university admission exams. That option, however, is only available to families who have the financial means. Originally […]

Sending money across borders is filled with friction, like long wait times, high transaction costs and markups on currency exchange. A Philippines-based startup called Parallax wants to make the process faster and cheaper with a cross-border payments system that can be used for stablecoin, crypto or traditional currencies. Parallax has raised $4.5 million in seed […]

ELSA, the English language learning platform, announced today it has raised $22.5 million in Series C funding. It also launched ELSA AI Tutor, which draws on years of speech recognition data collected by the app and reproduces conversations through generative AI to help learners correct their pronunciation, grammar and tone. This brings ELSA’s total raised […]