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The week that was — Jan 31 – Feb 5

The Lunar New Year celebrations this week meant markets were closed in most of Asia. But dealmaking activity in the region continued nonetheless.

Year of the Tiger

New York’s Tiger Global Management is not letting up its pace of investment in Asia as it is on track to secure $12 billion for its biggest venture capital fund yet.

This week, it led a $15 million Series B round for Indonesian fintech platform Ayoconnect, confirming DealStreetAsia’s earlier story. The funding comes just months after a $10 million round backed by Mandiri Capital Indonesia and Patamar Capital.

In India, it increased its stake in online grocery service Blinkit after acquiring additional shares from Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal.

It also invested in Indian enterprise software unicorn Chargebee and edtech startup Scaler Academy.

Tiger Global also led a $32 million Series A round for Jar, the Bengaluru-based savings and investment app, and a $40 million Series C funding for Indian logistics startup Loadshare.

DealStreetAsia exclusives

Indonesian agritech startups Sayurbox and Eden Farm are in talks to raise fresh capital from growth equity investors.

Singapore-based early-stage tech investor Monk’s Hill Ventures is said to be in early talks for a secondary transaction on its first fund. The fund, which closed in 2016 at $85 million, was deployed into companies including last-mile logistics plays Ninja Van and Waresix; Singapore-based cybersecurity company Horangi, and AI marketing platform Saleswhale, which was recently acquired by US company 6sense.

Monk’s Hill has since raised $100 million for its second fund, which closed in 2020, and is in the market to raise another $100 million for an opportunities fund.

Indonesian state lender BNI is launching a venture capital fund, earmarking $30 million from its balance sheet for investments across tech.

Vietnamese asset manager VinaCapital is set to close $100 million in private capital investments in the next few months, according to chief investment officer Andy Ho. It is looking at assets in healthcare, banking, and consumer-discretionary sectors.

Meanwhile, SEA Logistic Partners expects logistics real estate assets in Vietnam to generate higher returns than similar assets in other markets such as China and Japan, founding partner Chih Cheung told DealStreetAsia.

Malaysian government fund Dana Penjana Nasional is on track to raise its target of 1.2 billion ringgit, chief investment officer Taufiq Iskandar said in an interview. The fund has already deployed some 300 million ringgit into startups in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Private equity firm Northstar Group is also betting big on the region, focusing on the consumer, financial services, and the digital economy sectors, the firm’s top executives told DealStreetAsia in an interview.

SPAC news

Singapore-based Vistas Media Capital has successfully merged its SPAC with Anghami, the MENA music streaming platform. Anghami is now the first Arab tech company to be listed on the Nasdaq.

Meanwhile, Chinese private equity firm Primavera Capital has partnered with Chinese-owned investment bank ABC International and filed to list a special purpose acquisition company in Hong Kong. The SPAC, Interra Acquisition Corp, will be one of the first to list in Hong Kong under its new rules.

How 2021 was

Despite the protracted pandemic, PE and VC dealmaking in 2021 continued strongly.

As we see in DealStreetAsia’s report on deals in Greater China, private equity and venture capital activity ended on a high in 2021. Startups raised $87.4 billion in 2021, some 56% more than the year before. The most active sectors were software, semiconductors, and biotech.

In Southeast Asia, fintech and logistics startups attracted the lion’s share of funding in 2021. Companies in these sectors were among the 20 startups that attracted nearly two-thirds of all PE-VC capital in the region last year.

A sign of the times

This piece in Nikkei Asia is about the world’s largest seller of canned fish moving to produce plant-based seafood.

Hydration company waterdrop, which sells sugar-free flavouring for water, has raised $70 million in a round led by Temasek Holdings.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, founded in May 2019, is raising $1.8 billion in six months. The latest is a fresh $400 million infusion from investors including SoftBank and Temasek Holdings at a valuation of $32 billion.

Until next week, wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous Year of the Tiger!

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