Hyphen Partners

#BrightSpotsforInvestorsInSEA Early-stage deals continue to be a bright spot in the venture capital landscape in ASEAN. At a time when overall startup funding keeps tumbling down melancholicly in the region, dollars invested in Seed and Series A deals have increased. 👉 As per a recent report by January Capital, total venture funding in ASEAN declined 19.7% to US$2.3 billion in H1 2024 compared to a year ago period, while the overall deal count slid to 436 from 525. 👉 In this bleak situation, funding in Seed and Series A deals rose, even as the number of deals came down. 👉 Notably, Series A companies saw the least decline in deal count and the highest amount of capital among all stages. 👉 Meanwhile, later-stage ventures, those at Series B, Series C, and beyond, saw declines in both deal count and capital invested. One notable reason investors poured more dollars into early-stage startups was that Seed and Series A startups saw the largest pullback in valuations, the January Capital report notes. 👉 That means VCs could get more of these budding startups in less capital than before. Even checks became a bit fatter for Seed startups, fetching better value for investors. Other noteworthy points: 👉 Singapore attracted the most capital as usual, followed by Indonesia, which observed the biggest decline among ASEAN countries year-over-year in both capital invested and the number of deals. 👉 Most deals happened and most funding went to e-commerce, fintech, and healthcare in the first half of 2024. Despite that, investors' interest in e-commerce and healthcare waned compared to last year. 👉 On the flip side, more fintech ventures were able to keep VCs intrigued as the deal count in the sector went up comfortably. 👉 Other sectors in ASEAN that saw the number of deals going up in the first half of the year over the previous year were prop tech, HR tech, and Web 3. 💡 Read more about it in our latest edition of #ICYMI: https://lnkd.in/gQFwiHah 💡 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! 💡 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gBjcqnXz

Recently, our co-founder, Zul Azman, had the pleasure of being interviewed in a mini ‘podcast’ with Daryl Lim, where they reflected on the founding of Hyphen Partners and our deep commitment to the ecosystem. It was a timely reminder to reflect on the principles that continue to drive us and the positive impact we’re dedicated to making. This September also marks our official 2-year anniversary, and we couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come. From building an exceptional team to successfully launching our Australia office, our growth and achievements have been nothing short of incredible. A huge thank you to our incredible team, clients, and partners for your unwavering support. Here’s to many more years of success together! #hyphenpartners #executivesearch #anniversary

#BuzzingDealsOfTheWeek ➤ Invesko: US$1.6 million Invesko is a Gen Z-focused investment platform that lets them invest in stocks and ETFs with just US$1 and earn rewards in cash and stocks. •⁠  Stage: Seed •⁠  ⁠Industry: Wealth tech / The Philippines •⁠  ⁠Investor: TNB AURA’s Scout Initiative, 500 Southeast Asia, Kaya Founders, and Foxmont Capital Partners ➤ Catius: Undisclosed Catius is an ed-tech AI startup offering an interactive conversational AI that can converse with children, exploring fun and educational topics to help them learn about the world around them. •⁠  Stage: Pre-Series A •⁠  ⁠Industry: Edtech / South Korea •⁠  ⁠Investor: Smilegate Investment, STIC Ventures, and Farquhar VC (FVC) ➤ Finture: US$30 million Finture runs YUP, a consumer finance tool that allows consumers to use card payments to get pay-later services from its financial institution partners.  •⁠  Stage: Series B  •⁠  ⁠Industry: Fintech / Indonesia •⁠  ⁠Investor: MindWorks Capital, XVC, SWC Global, Richen Pioneer, and Antão Capital ➤ ByteGami: US$110,000 ByteGami helps developers build gamified features into their apps from scratch and scale these features.  •⁠  Stage: Pre-seed •⁠  ⁠Industry: B2B SaaS / Malaysia •⁠  ⁠Investor: Antler ➤ Return Helper: US$1.8 million Return Helper offers cross-border e-commerce return services for online retailers, which is an expensive process for e-commerce brands.  •⁠  Stage: Pre-Series A (ongoing) •⁠  ⁠Industry: Logistics / Hong Kong •⁠  ⁠Investor: HIRAC FUND｜Money Forward Venture Partners, Inc. ➤  GAMEE: Undisclosed GAMEE, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, operates a high-engagement play-to-earn blockchain gaming platform. •⁠  Stage: Series Unknown •⁠  ⁠Industry: Gaming / Hong Kong •⁠  ⁠Investor: Pantera Capital ➤ SurplusLoop: US$$110,000  SurplusLoop manages surplus assets for asset-heavy enterprises in manufacturing, hospitality, and construction.  •⁠  Stage: Pre-seed •⁠  ⁠Industry: B2B E-commerce / Malaysia •⁠  ⁠Investor: Antler 👉 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! 👉 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gBjcqnXz #startupfunding #SEA #venturecapital #investments

#AsianStartupEcosystemAwaitsSpring Spring hasn’t yet come for Asian startups. The regional entrepreneurs have just learned to survive in the prolonged winter. 👉 As per a recent report by KPMG, VC investments in Asia fell from US$20.8 billion to US$17.4 billion between Q1’24 and Q2’24. 👉 Asia’s e-commerce and consumer-focused sectors witnessed the two largest deals during Q2’24, including a US$1.9 billion raise by Lazada and a US$1 billion raise by Flipkart. VC investments rose in India, Singapore, and Japan, but Asia’s wild card China turned out to be a big drag. 👉 Chinese startup raised a total venture funding of US$7.4 billion in Q2’24, a piercing 42% decline from Q1’24, per Crunchbase. Still, new energy, semiconductors, and AI remained hot sectors. 👉 Southeast Asian startups raised US$1.3 billion in Q2’24, compared to US$1.4 billion in the previous quarter, as per Dealroom.co. 👉 VC investments in Japan rose from US$842 million in Q1’24 to US$1.2 billion in Q2’24, despite worsening macroeconomic conditions. Areas like space tech, nuclear fusion, biotech, and AI saw strong investor interest. 👉 In India, VC funding rose considerably between Q1’24 and Q2’24 — from US$2.9 billion to US$4 billion. However, investors played safe by sticking to deals in traditional sectors like fintech, electric vehicles, and consumer technologies. 👉 As per KPMG, in Q3 2024, AI and alternative energy vehicles in Asia are expected to remain attractive for venture capitalists. 💡 Read more about it in our latest edition of #ICYMI: https://lnkd.in/gfput_aC 💡 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! 💡 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gBjcqnXz

#BuzzingDealsOfTheWeek ➤ Syfe: US$27 million Syfe is a savings and investment platform that aims to empower people to build their wealth for a better future. •⁠  Stage: Series C  •⁠  ⁠Industry: Wealth tech / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: Unbound and Valar Ventures LLC ➤ DiMuto: US$5.9 million DiMuto offers a marketplace, trade management, and trade financing for agri-food, intending to create an AI-enabled sustainable agri-trade ecosystem. •⁠  Stage: Series A •⁠  ⁠Industry: Agritech / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, SiS Cloud Global Tech Fund 8, Gold Sceptre, Dave Chen, SEEDS Capital, SGInnovate, and PT. Great Giant Pineapple. ➤ SleekFlow: US$7 million SleekFlow offers an AI-powered omnichannel conversation suite for customer engagement.  •⁠  Stage: Series A+  •⁠  ⁠Industry: AI, Conversational commerce / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: Atinum Investment ➤ Jendela360: US$2.7 million Jendela360 offers an online-to-offline property tech platform that streamlines the rental and sales process. •⁠  Stage: Series A •⁠  ⁠Industry: Prop tech / Indonesia •⁠  ⁠Investor: Undisclosed ➤ Phuc Sinh Group: US$25 million Phuc Sinh sells agricultural products from farms to end consumers, specializing in coffee and white pepper.  •⁠  Stage: Loan •⁠  ⁠Industry: Sustainable agriculture, trading / Vietnam •⁠  ⁠Investor: &Green 👉 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! 👉 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gTztaHUG #startupfunding #SEA #venturecapital #investments

#SEARampsUpEffortsToBecomeAIHub Malaysia aims to become one of the top 20 countries in the AI field. 👉The country wants to bring together researchers, developers, and decision-makers to develop and adopt AI-related technology responsibly and ethically. 👉 It will build the national AI ecosystem, including a center of excellence to facilitate AI learning and research and its own AI cloud computing system. Vietnam has emerged as a strong contender to become a global AI hub, owing to its favorable market conditions, abundant human resources, and dynamic startup ecosystem. 👉 The country is collaborating with Google, which has pledged 40,000 scholarships to equip Vietnamese professionals with essential AI skills. Moreover, Google has vowed to train 200 local startups in AI-related fields. 👉 More Vietnamese graduates are entering the semiconductor industry as the AI boom boosts demand for chip engineers. The government has a target of training at least 50,000 chip engineers and designers by 2030. Indonesia, on its part, is witnessing its financial institutions being at the forefront of adopting GenAI. 👉 Per a new report by BCG and AC Ventures, 51% of Indonesian financial institutions are focusing on deploying GenAI for everyday tasks, and an additional 27% see it as a great opportunity to invent new products and services. 👉 Meanwhile, 49% of business leaders in the country’s financial sector prioritize GenAI to enhance customer service, with 34% already seeing its tangible benefits. Last but not least, there is the region's north star Singapore. 👉 The city-state already has an elaborate National AI Roadmap—with a US$742 million investment earmarked for the AI space—and is on a fast track to becoming Southeast Asia’s AI leader. 👉 As a part of its AI strategy, Singapore is developing Sea-Lion (Southeast Asian Languages in One Network), the first open-source LLM specifically focused on Southeast Asian languages and contexts. 💡 Read more about it in our latest edition of #ICYMI: https://lnkd.in/gxb3gD8c 💡 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! 💡 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gBjcqnXz

#BuzzingDealsOfTheWeek ➤ Kazam : US$8 million Kazam is building an IoT-enabled electric vehicle charging ecosystem (software and hardware) for charging point operators, fleet operators, and electricity grids.  •⁠  Stage: Series A •⁠  ⁠Industry: Electric Vehicles/India •⁠  ⁠Investor: Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India ➤ UnaBiz : US$25 million UnaBiz provides IoT solutions for asset tracking and smart metering. •⁠  Stage: Series C •⁠  ⁠Industry: IoT / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: KDDI Open Innovation Fund 3 and KYOCERA Communication Systems ➤  Moonshot AI: US$300 million Moonshot AI is a generative startup building LLMs that can handle long text and data inputs. •⁠  Stage: Venture round (series unknown) •⁠  ⁠Industry: Artificial Intelligence / China •⁠  ⁠Investor: Tencent and Alibaba Group ➤ SILICON BOX : US$100 million Silicon Box is a semiconductor design and device integration service with a flagship foundry in Singapore. •⁠  Stage: Series B (extended) •⁠  ⁠Industry: Semiconductor manufacturing/ Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: Prysm Capital ➤ Aevice Health: US$7 million Aevice Health specializes in wearable devices for remote monitoring of respiratory conditions. •⁠  Stage: Seed round (extended ) •⁠  ⁠Industry: Medtech/ Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: Coronet Ventures, East Ventures, A&D Company, NTUitive, Farquhar Venture Capital, Silicon Solution Venture, and SEEDS Capital. ➤ Growsari : US$5 million GrowSari offers a digital retail distribution platform that connects informal SME retailers with FMCG manufacturers and wholesalers. •⁠  Stage: Venture round (series unknown) •⁠  ⁠Industry: E-commerce/ The Philippines •⁠  ⁠Investor: Kaishi Ventures 👉 Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this 🚀 👉 To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gTztaHUG #startupfunding #SEA #venturecapital #investments