This Singapore startup tracks biz news in Asia and it just got funded

As Southeast Asia emerges as a leading financial hub, the need for digging out business news from the region has shot up. For over a year now, Singapore-based digital platform DealStreetAsia has been doing exactly that. And here comes a sure sign that it’s headed in the right direction.

DealStreetAsia, which covers financial and economic news on Southeast Asia, has bagged seed funding of an undisclosed amount from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, and Singapore Angel Network (SGAN), the company reported today.

Hindustan Times Media Group, which publishes business daily Mint in India and MintAsia in Singapore also took part in the round. The investment comes ahead of a larger series A round of venture funding which DealStreetAsia plans to close in the first quarter of 2016.

The funds will be used to strengthen its India and ASEAN teams, expand operations to Hong Kong and China, and work toward the launching the company’s deal analytics and data platform.

“We plan to go to China next with outposts in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, and also expand to Japan and Australia, and become a pan-Asia player,” DealStreetAsia founder and editor-in-chief Joji Thomas Philip said in a statement.

Puthen & Cole, a Singapore-based VC, continues to be an investor in DealStreetAsia.

What the portal has been up to

The DealStreetAsia portal was launched in October 2014 to provide “international and regional investors insight into some of Asia’s most opaque markets.” It churns out over 40 news and analysis stories daily, including the business of startups. It is present in India and the ASEAN countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Myanmar.

South Asia has shown a keen interest in ASEAN. And DealStreetAsia is seen to be bridging the information gap between the two regions, which combined make up about a third of the world’s population.

“ASEAN sits on a significant purchasing power and huge untapped potential,” said Karan Singh Thakral, executive director of the multi-billion dollar Thakral Group of Companies. SGAN is the angel investment arm of the group.

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