Embedded finance continues to be the engine driving the growth of fintech, with one group of companies building core banking, payments and other financial technology, and a much bigger group tapping that technology through APIs to build customer-facing businesses. Today, one of the bigger players on the core technology side — Global Processing Services — […]
Southeast Asian startups to watch in 2022
As someone who covers Southeast Asia startups and funding stories, the best word I can think of to describe 2021 is “whoa!” This was the year that global investors not only started to pay close attention to the region’s tech ecosystems, but also began putting real money into them. Backed by international LPs, Southeast Asia-focused […]
Dear Sophie: How to maneuver the latest travel bans, H-1B alternatives
Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.
Francophone African super app Gozem grabs $5M to expand and offer more services
Gozem, a super app that provides a host of services — including transport, e-commerce and financial services in Francophone Africa — has raised $5 million in Series A financing, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The Togo- and Singapore-based company received investment from AAIC, Thunes (TransferTo), Momentum Ventures (SMRT), Innoport Ventures (Schulte Group), CMC Ventures (National […]
With $3B expected in 2021, Singapore is becoming a fintech capital
Despite its small size (less than 5 million total population), Singapore is quickly reaching investment levels of countries many times its size.
Southeast Asia multi-currency neobank YouTrip raises $30M Series A, will launch corporate card
Singapore-based YouTrip, an online bank that focuses on making multi-currency transactions less costly and more efficient, announced today that it has raised a $30 million Series A. YouTrip founder and CEO Caecilia Chu said the round was led by prominent family offices in Asia who prefer to remain unnamed, but are returning from earlier rounds. […]
Spotify’s new Podcast Subscriptions expand to global markets
Just a few months after launching support for podcast subscriptions to U.S. creators, Spotify today is making the service available to creators in global markets. The company says the service, which allows creators to mark episodes as “subscriber-only” content, will now become available in 33 new markets worldwide. When podcast subscriptions publicly launched in the […]
Singapore-based TreeDots gets $11M Series A to cut food waste in Asia
Every year, tons of food ends up in landfills because of cosmetic issues (they won’t look nice in stores) or inefficiencies in the supply chain. Singapore-based TreeDots, which says it is the first food surplus marketplace in Asia, wants to help. The company is focused on creating a vertically integrated supply chain with a B2B […]
Predicting the next wave of Southeast Asia tech giants
Despite the impressive growth and stellar companies grabbing headlines and tons of capital, Southeast Asia is only just entering the next phase of development.
Wavemaker Impact launches to help entrepreneurs build climate tech startups
Wavemaker Partners doesn’t just want to invest in climate tech and sustainability startups. It also wants to help build them. Today, the Singapore-based firm announced the launch of Wavemaker Impact, a venture builder that identifies potential business opportunities, finds seasoned entrepreneurs to turn those ideas into startups and acts like a co-founder as companies scale. […]