kID secures USD45 million in Series A Round led by Andreessen Horowitz & Lightspeed Venture Partners
kID is a Singapore-based startup which provides a cross platform, instant sign on solution for kids and teenagers. The company has announced a USD45 million Series A funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Konvoy. Additional support came from Tirta (a16z), Okta (LY Corporation), and Z Venture Capital.
With the completion of this round, k-ID has now raised USD 51 million in total funding.
k-ID’s platform simplifies the management of online privacy and safety for game developers, parents and kids. Jonathan Lai, general partnership at a16z, said that kids today make friends, create countless memories, and have fun in virtual worlds and games. Parents need modern tools to protect them. “k-ID meets this need, and defines a new standard for digital youth protection.
Pawprints Group secures an extension to the seed round from Asia Fund X in order to advance sustainable pet nutrition
Pawprints Group – a Singaporean company that specializes in “biologically-ideal and allergy-friendly pet food” – has announced an extension of its seed funding round, led by Asia Fund X. AFX is an opportunity fund supported and anchored by Pavilion Capital and supported by MSW Ventures.
This investment follows a USD 1.7 million initial seed round in November of 2023, and includes backing from existing Investors Creative Gorilla Capital and Japfa Comfeed’s family office Altrui Investments.
Jacqueline Sulistyo, the founder of the company, highlighted its mission to redefine pet food with high-quality sustainable options that cater for pets with allergies and dietary sensitivity. Pawprints has said that it has achieved a strong market fit. Its monthly revenue has doubled since the launch of their signature brand in June 20,23 and they have completed over 35,000 orders. The company plans to launch more than ten SKUs of new products by the end 2024 in order to capitalize on Asia’s growing pet industry.
Earth VC invests Orbillion Bio, a startup that produces cultivated meat
Earth Venture Capital, a climate-tech venture capital firm based out of Vietnam, announced its strategic investment into Orbillion Bio a US-based cultivated beef startup.
This investment, led by The Venture Collective, At One Ventures and Metaplanet with participation from Y Combinator, aims at scaling up Orbillion’s production and developing its technology.
Orbillion Bio, founded in 2020, specializes in producing Wagyu Beef Cells and aims to become a leading B2B provider of beef muscle and fat cell. The company has made significant progress by achieving a 200 liter production run in Singapore within a short timeframe. The company has also partnered up with Luiten Food in order to bring cell-cultured Wagyu to over 35 countries pending EU regulatory approval.
Orbillion will be able to establish operations in Singapore and target the Asian market using its technology.
Plaza Premium Group invests USD 300 Million to improve airport hospitality services
Plaza Premium Group, an airport hospitality service provider, announced a USD $300 million investment over the next three-year period to drive innovation and growth.
PPG, which has 250 locations in 80 airports in 30 countries, will use the funds to enhance the customer experience by implementing sustainable solutions, cutting edge technologies, and strategic expansion of markets.
The investment will focus on expanding operations in Asia Pacific, Middle East, UK, and Americas. It will also develop an innovation hub in Hong Kong and launch a digital management platform, OneTeco. The investment will also support projects in destinations such as Abu Dhabi, London and Vancouver, Kenya, Kuala Lumpur in Indonesia, Chongqing and Osaka.
MUFG invests In Ascend Money And LanzaJet
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has announced two new investment.
The financial services group invests USD 195 millions in Ascend Money. Ascend Money is a leading Thai mobile payment operator affiliated with Charoen-Pokphand Group (CP). This investment will be made through MUFG’s Thai subsidiary, Bank of Ayudhya(Krungsri), and will secure a 10% share in Ascend Money. The investment is jointly led by MUFG Bank, Ayudhya’s corporate venture capital arm and MUFG Bank.
MUFG will appoint a senior executive to Ascend Money’s management team, and explore collaboration opportunities with CP Group. Ascend Money, which has around 30 million active users of its TrueMoney service plans to expand their consumer credit business by leveraging Ayudhya’s expertise in corporate governance and credit decisions. This move is part MUFG’s plan to increase its presence in Southeast Asia, where the consumer finance market is rapidly growing.
MUFG Bank announced its investment in LanzaJet in parallel. LanzaJet is a US-based firm that specializes in the production of sustainable aviation fuel. LanzaJet’s proprietary alcohol-to jet (ATJ) conversion technology converts ethanol to SAF via a catalytic processing, promising significant advances for large-scale SAF production.
Stride secures USD3 million debt financing from Trine for clean energy adoption in Vietnam
Stride is a clean tech company based in Ho Chi Minh City. It has secured a USD3 million debt financing facility with Trine, an investment platform for solar energy based in Sweden.
This funding follows Stride’s earlier USD 2million seed-stage equity financing from Clime Capital & Touchstone Partners, in May 2023. The funding is aimed at scaling the business of providing low cost financing for households and small and medium enterprises to implement projects involving solar energy.
The debt financing will allow Stride to expand their capacity to develop clean energy systems across Vietnam in partnership local installers. Andrew Fairthorne said that the funds will help accelerate the deployment and use of solar energy solutions across Vietnam.
Opilot secures funding from Iterative Capital
Opilot is a Singapore-based artificial-intelligence startup that focuses on data privacy and security. Iterative Capital has invested an undisclosed pre-seed amount.
This investment will allow Opilot to scale up its premium and enterprise tiers, as it begins testing with various companies.
The backing of ‘Iterative’ validates the need for data privacy, as AI adoption grows globally. Data breaches related to AI are becoming more common. Bad actors are gaining access to personal and confidential data. We believe people should be able use AI without putting their businesses or themselves at risk,” said Julien Lauret.
Antler invests Canterly, a platform focused on equestrian sports
Canterly is a startup that develops a platform for equestrian business. According to Nanda Prins the founder and CEO of the startup, Antler has provided pre-seed financing.
The company is developing an intelligent operating system to combat manual processes, resource underutilization and operational inefficiencies within equestrian businesses. Prins stated that Canterly’s goal is to make “equestrian sport universally accessible by creating a vibrant and globally connected community, [and] ultimately reimagining the way it operates, interacts and transacts.”
VidAU secures Angel funding to enhance AI video creation capabilities
River Jin Technology, a company that provides AI-powered video creation platforms, has invested angel funding in VidAU to develop its algorithms and AI models. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
In a press release, the company stated that its platform simplifies video creation by allowing users to use lifelike avatars as well as a suite of video-editing features.
Dachin, a D2C brand creator, has reportedly secured seed funding
Dachin Etech Global, a Singapore-headquartered D2C brand creator, has secured an undisclosed sum of seed funding from Northstar Ventures, according to regulatory filings accessed by DealStreetAsia.
Recent Deals Completed in China:
- Jheat Technology is a Shanghai registered temperature control technology company. Qingyuan Huaxin Investment has invested an undisclosed sum in an angel financing round. The capital will be used primarily for R&D and improving product competitiveness. —36Kr
- AnDiConBio is a developer of respiratory infection-fighting drugs that has completed a RMB200 million (USD27.5 million) Series A financing round. The round was led by Simcere Pharmaceutical and Huajin Capital with additional funding from Jiaxing Xinchuang Venture Capital and Cowin Capital. The funds will be used to develop the company’s core products in preclinical and clinic development. —36Kr
- AdvanSol is a developer of microstring inverters used for solar power systems. The financing round was led by Edge Ventures. The funds will be used to enhance the company’s competitiveness by enhancing product development and acquiring talent. —36Kr
- Zeron has raised nearly RMB 100,000,000 (USD 13,7 million) as part of a Series A1 financing round. Momenta, Cherish Capital and Skyview Fund are among the investors. The capital will be used to mass produce and deliver pure electric heavy trucks, R&D for autonomous driving technology, as well as development of new vehicle designs. —36Kr
Atome Food Empire Tiger New Energy and more headlines yesterday:
- Atome Finance, an advanced financial technology platform within Advance Intelligence Group has secured a term debt facility of three years from EvolutionX Debt Capital. The facility has an accordion feature which could increase the total amount up to USD $100 million.
- Food Empire Holdings is a Singapore multinational food and beverage company. Ikhlas Capital, a private equity fund, has invested USD 40 million in the group. The investment will go into a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), wholly owned by Food Empire Holdings, which will hold or have the option to own a portfolio of operations in Southeast Asia and South Asia.
- Tiger New Energy is a Bangladeshi startup that specializes in clean energy. ADB Ventures has provided an additional USD 1,000,000 in funding, which will be added to the USD 2,5 million seed round led in 2023 by Wavemaker Partners. The investment will speed up the deployment of Tiger’s battery swapping system across Bangladesh.
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