On Thursday, Indonesian coffee chain Kopi Kenangan announced its recent seed funding of US$8 million from Indonesia-focused venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures. Kopi Kenangan is Indonesia’s fastest-growing grab-and-go coffee chain. Within a year, it already opened 16 stores in Greater Jakarta area, and the number will keep on rising as the company plans to operate a total of 30
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Cambodia’s Meal Temple raises 6-figure funding
Cambodia-based startup Meal Temple Group, which operates food delivery platform MealTemple.com and grocery delivery platform GroceryDelivery.asia., has raised an undisclosed six-figure round private European and Australian investors. The company was established 5 years ago, at the nascent stage of the Cambodian startup ecosystem. The company plans to use the newly-raised funding to grow its local operations and extend its logistics services
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IFC launches $1 billion masala bonds
A World Bank Group member, International Finance Corporation launched $1 billion Masala Bonds to strengthen India investments. The 1st Tranche of $100 million was opened last night on the London stock Exchange. It was sold to different sections of investors, including asset managers, banks and a pension fund in the US and Europe.
Masala Bonds are used to raise funds overseas
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Bengaluru-based startup Universal Sportsbiz raises $13.5 million
Fashion based startup Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd. raised around 100 crore rupees in Series E funding round by existing investor Accel Partners. Alteria Capital also fueled $1 million in the new round. The new round of funding values the company at $160 million which was around $100 million previous year. USPL intends to use the funds in growing retail network
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First batch of Hong Kong AI Lab accelerator to be launched by Alibaba and SenseTime
As part of the Hong Kong government’s effort to boost innovation in areas including AI, biotech and fintech, e-commerce giant Ali Baba and Hong Kong’s first unicorn SenseTime established The Hong Kong AI Lab in May. It has now picked seven startups that will receive funding under its accelerator program. The AI lab will provide each of the selected startups
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BASIS organizes NASA Space Apps Challenge 2018
With the assistance of BASIS Student’s Forum, BASIS has brought you NASA Space Apps Challenge 2018. From 9 cities (Dhaka, Sylhet, Chittagong, Barisal, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Khulna, Barisal and Comilla), over 2000 initiatives submitted entries and the best 40 initiatives were chosen to attend the 36-hour Hack-a-thon on 19th-20th October,2018. Over 500000 students were associated with the event virtually and around
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CMED Health wins Innovative Social Enterprise Award in Singapore
It was a proud moment for Bangladesh when CMED Health won the Innovative Social Enterprise Award in Education sponsored by The Head Foundation in 2018 DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia (SVC Asia). In the fifth edition of this initiative, $135,000 cash prizes were awarded to the startups in different categories. This competition seeks out and assists concepts that has the
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The Bangladeshi micro-merchant retail scene is a billion dollar sector
In Bangladesh, more than $18.42 billion a year is transacted by 2 million people through micro-merchant retail trade, according to a United Nations study. The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the UN's capital investment agency for the world's 48 least developed countries, and Dnet, a social enterprise based in Dhaka, published the study report at a programme at the
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$20M investment for music social network, Smule
App maker turned music social network Smule has raised another $20 million. The latest round follows a $54 million raise in May of last year, led by Tencent, intent on helping the company expand Asia operations. This time out, funding is arriving via Times Bridge, the VC wing of India media conglomerate The Times Group.
“Building the Smule brand in India is a
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Fastwork raises US$4.8M led by Gobi Partners
Online freelancing platform, Fastwork, with operations in Thailand and Indonesia, announced today it has secured US$4.8 million in Series A financing round led by regional venture capital firm Gobi Partners. Vickers Venture Partners, LINE Ventures, and Partech Partners also joined the round, which brings Fastwork’s total amount raised to date to US$5.5 million.
“SMEs are growing at an unprecedented pace in
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Myanmar’s fitness platform Flexible Pass raises six-digit dollar round
Burmese health and fitness platform, Flexible Pass, has successfully raised a round worth six-digit dollar round by Nest Tech, a VC firm that actively backs startups in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Singapore. The round was joined by Seed Myanmar and Yangong Capital Partners (YCP), which is the investment arm of the financial advisory firm, Trust Venture Partners (TVP).
Flexible Pass will use
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YouTube personalities to be incubated for educational content
YouTube personalities with focus on educational video content targeting children and young adults will be supported by The EduCreator Incubator of Next 10 Ventures, a $50 million fund based in Los Angeles. The incubator will seed 25 to 40 “emerging video creators” with $25,000 to $75,000 in seed funding, depending on their location, and will enroll them in a 12-month
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MFS providers highlight unfair advantage of Post Office’s Nagad
Mobile financial services (MFS) in Bangladesh have highlighted the unfair advantage that the Post Office’s mobile banking service, Nagad, poses. They also expressed their worry about the potential misuse of Nagad for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Nagad allows customers to make a single transaction of BDT 50,000 and maximum BDT 250,000 in 10 transactions per day and withdraw maximum BDT
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Indonesia gets new US$10 million early-stage VC fund
The Gobi-Agung Fund is a US$10 million fund launched this week in Indonesia by Gobi Partners. Gobi Partners is a regional venture capital which is offering ticket sizes of up to US$1 million from the aforementioned fund.
Arya Masagung, who joined the firm this year to oversee their early-stage investment strategy in Southeast Asia with a focus on the Indonesian market,
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After Singapore, Malaysia introduces Digital Tax
Following the handover of political power to the opposition party in the general election of 9 May 2018, Malaysian government is undergoing a significant revamp in its financial management philosophies. As such, Malaysia is about to become the second country in Southeast Asia after Singapore to introduce a tax scheme for the digital sector.
The rationale of the
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Bangladesh Bank allows holding foreign loan collaterals without approval
In an effort to streamline international finance, the Bangladesh Bank has made provision for local commercial banks to hold collaterals on behalf of the on-resident lenders against external loans, availed by the state entities, without prior approval from Bangladesh Bank (BB).
"We've relaxed regulations allowing the authorised dealers (AD) banks to hold collaterals against external loans without prior approval from the
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