A Recap on What Happened This Week: Asian Startup News Overview (8th January- 13th January)

By: Asia Business Outlook Team | Friday, 13 January 2023

Today, Asian startups are shaping global trends, and it is never too late to start a business. A diverse, talented, and energetic group of founders is emerging across the Asia-Pacific. With funding and investments pouring into the region, these startup founders have an unprecedented opportunity to find the support they require to grow. Asian startups are exploring what is possible with the next wave of technological advances to meet the changing needs of the region's online population. Many people want to help solve long-standing social, financial, and environmental problems. They are frequently concentrated in areas where technology has not made as much progress as it has in more established sectors of the digital economy.

This week, Singapore-based Supermom closed a $6 million oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Qualgro, while FLIK, an Indonesian-based startup that provided a unified heckout solution, secured a $1.1 million pre-seed round led by East Ventures.

This week was dull in terms of investments, but some major startups excelled in terms of funding-:

Supermom

Supermom, a Singapore-based parenting network, announced the completion of its SG$8 million ($6.01 million) Series A fundraising on Wednesday, led by Qualgro, with participation from AC Ventures.

According to a statement, Supermom's Series A funding will be used to improve its data and product capabilities and accelerate regional expansion.

The company stated that it is looking for talent to help build Southeast Asia's largest consumer data powerhouse while continuing to provide superior value to both parents/families and brands.

Toddle

Toddle, a learning management system startup, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital India.

Tenacity Ventures and Trifecta Capital, as well as existing investors Matrix Partners, Beenext, and Better Capital, took part in the funding round, according to the company.

According to Toddle, the global market for school software is expected to reach $30 billion by 2030, creating a massive opportunity for the company.

Qritive

AI startup in healthcare Qritive has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by MassMutual Ventures, with SEEDS Capital and Exfinity Venture Partners also participating. The startup intends to use the new funds to expand into new markets, expand its product portfolio, and support regulatory clearances.

Qritive was founded in 2017 by Dr Aneesh Sathe and Dr Kaveh Taghipour and has offices in San Diego and Pune. The startup employs advanced artificial intelligence to interpret pathology scans in seconds, reducing treatment time and increasing accuracy in cancer care. As digital pathology gains traction around the world, Qritive aims to bring clinical-grade AI-powered solutions to enable histopathology cancer diagnosis at scale.

Mind Cafe

Atommerce, the operator of the South Korean mental healthcare platform Mind Cafe, has received a strategic investment of 6 billion won ($4.8 million) from Lotte Healthcare and Samsung Venture Investment.

Mind Cafe, which debuted in 2015, claims to be South Korea's leading mental health app in terms of monthly active users, average stay time, number of experts, sales, cumulative investment, and corporate value.

It has approximately 1.5 million users who use its online therapy services. The app also provides employers with an employee mental health benefits solution; over 190 institutions have taken advantage of this package, including Samsung Electronics, Naver, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Toss, Musinsa Temple, and Seoul City.