Big money abounds in the - what else? - semiconductor industry

GTA Semiconductor, IndoSpace, Josys, and more raise funds this week. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Saturday VC newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Hello {NAME} When the funding numbers for this newsletter hit such heights like they do today (over US$2.7 billion), I find that it’s usually due to one giant deal, while the other deals pale in comparison. That’s not really the case today - although the gap between first and second is pretty big, second place still scored US$150 million, which isn’t chump change. Third place got US$93 million, also a sizable sum. Hopefully, these are indications that the floodgates are creaking open again. This economy is really making me dislike bears, I can tell you that much. You can find all other important investment deals that happened in the last few days in our [weekly funding news wrap-up](. Let’s dive into the biggest deals that recently took place. -- Winston  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY  CN GTA Semiconductor, a semiconductor chip developer, raised over US$1.8 billion in a strategic investment. Multiple state funds, industrial investors, and regional funds participated in the round; Jasper Capital is the only known participant at this time. IN IndoSpace is an India-based investor, developer, and manager of grade-A industrial and logistics real estate. It has closed a US$150 million bridge round from Grosvenor Asia Pacific and Qatar Investment Authority. JP Josys is a Japanese B2B SaaS platform for corporate IT operations. It [secured US$93 million in series B money]( with Global Brain Corporation and Globis Capital Partners as the investors. VN F88 is a Vietnam-based lending company providing its services to unbanked and underbanked individuals as well as MSMEs that have limited access to credit. The firm [received US$50 million in debt financing]( from Lending Ark Asia. KR Bbodek is a South Korean firm that provides tableware rental and washing services for restaurants and cafeterias. It closed a US$13.5 million series B round, with investors including the likes of Hanwha Investment & Securities, IBK Securities, and IGIS Asset Management. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [59 deals worth over US$2.7 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&As IN TenderCuts is an India-based omnichannel supplier of meat and seafood. It was acquired by Good To Go for an undisclosed sum. SG Knight Auto Precision Engineering, a Singaporean precision engineering company, was acquired by Templewater, a leading private equity firm. The financial details of the deal were not publicly available. IN India-based Pikkol, an AI-based platform for relocation needs, has been acquired by Hybrid Shifting Solutions India for an undisclosed figure. IN Neverskip is an edtech firm from India. It was acquired by PowerSchool, with the financial details of the deal not made publicly available.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  STARTUPS THAT ARE RAISING FUNDS Fundraising is hard. To make things slightly easier, we’ve compiled this list of fundraising startups for our subscribers. Do you run a startup that’s raising at the moment or know someone who does? Sign your company up for listing [here]( TH MedEx Ventures is a Thai healthtech firm that decentralizes the care continuum as a one-stop care navigation concierge. MY ChatCoach.ai is a Malaysian startup that offers AI-powered training and coaching solutions. SG Singapore-based GetSpaces streamlines the leasing process and mitigates the risks and inefficiencies associated with traditional property leasing. You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia [over here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ A freelance job platform’s pitch deck helped it bank US$1.3 million in funding Twine connects companies with talented freelancers in the creative, digital, and marketing sectors who can pitch for available projects. It used [this deck]( to secure over US$1 million in early-stage funding. The presentation begins by sharing opportunities in the freelance industry before pointing out its usual pain points and how Twine’s service solves them. It also showcases the company’s business model and route-to-market plan. 2️⃣ The pitch deck that helped a graph database startup nab US$10 million in series A money ArangoDB is a free and open-source graph database, document store, and search engine in one. In 2019, the US-based firm used [this pitch deck]( to raise US$10 million in its series A round. The presentation starts by providing general information such as the company’s addressable market and its development over time. It then shows the startup’s approach model and product positioning as well as its simplicity in comparison to other database platforms. 3️⃣ A data engineering firm’s pitch deck scored it US$19 million in series A money Ascend offers a platform for self-service, autonomous data pipelines. Using [this pitch deck]( the US-based startup got series A funding in a round led by Accel in 2019. The presentation introduces Acscend’s leadership team and outlines the opportunities in the big-data industry, detailing the challenges in the scene and explaining what it was like before big data came along.  --------------------------------------------------------------- TECH IN ASIA CONFERENCE 2023 Join the highly anticipated Startup Arena Pitch Battle, presented by East Ventures. Each finalist will get to pitch live to a panel of investors on the conference's Main Stage and get a complimentary Startup Factory booth to showcase their startup. Finalists not based in Indonesia will also receive up to a US$1000 travel stipend. Only a few weeks left to apply [here](.  --------------------------------------------------------------- EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES Lists of most active investors in the region [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Singapore]( | [Southeast Asia]( List of top-funded startups in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Israel]( | [Japan]( | [Hong Kong]( | [Singapore]( | [South Korea]( | [Vietnam](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ Making sense of the talent chaos One could argue that one of the reasons for the layoffs we’ve seen in tech over the last year or so is the indiscriminate hiring frenzy that took place just prior to the onset of the current bear market. What was once the right decision became the wrong one seemingly overnight. [This article on First Round Review]( dives into how talent teams can approach recruitment more smartly to stay resistant to the job feast-or-famine cycles. 2️⃣ Putting diversity and inclusion front and center It’s 2023, and (one would hope that) diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are now essential parts of every company’s culture. Still, even the best-intentioned firms can sometimes face difficulties in making sure DEI is ever-present in key decisions - unconscious biases or even simply too-large workloads can push efforts onto the backburner. [Harvard Business Review]( offers some tips to make sure that DEI doesn’t fall by the wayside in the course of business. 3️⃣ Fishy business Overfishing and climate change have damaged populations of fish and other sea creatures worldwide. And since we’re in a tech newsletter, you can bet that I’m about to talk about tech solutions. [This Crunchbase piece]( dives into (geddit, geddit) seafood-related startups - they’ve collectively raised almost US$3 billion to date. 4️⃣ CEOs need effective performance reviews too It’s not the newest, but this blog post from Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson brings up an important topic: how CEOs can receive effective feedback from their board to improve at their job. He calls the process a [“CEO 360.”]( 5️⃣ Talking more about generative AI Generative AI is the hottest shizz around, and [this article on the Andreessen Horowitz website]( dives deeper into the financial opportunities this tech can bring.  --------------------------------------------------------------- [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. You can also break our hearts and remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over [here](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi. Today’s edition was written by Winston Zhang. It’s edited by Dhania Putri Sarahtika. Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894