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The startup life is all about problem-solving. If you’re truly fulfilling a need in the market, the odds of you finding product-market fit are high and the path to growth is much more clear-cut, as customers will want what you provide.
That appears to be the case with this week’s top-funded startups. All of them offer solutions to problems that people have grappled with for years, from simplifying money transfers between individuals to powering vehicles with something cleaner than gasoline. It’s safe to say these firms have helped make people’s lives better, in some way or another.
Image credit: Timmy Loen
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 and M&As that recently took place.
The biggest deals by country
🇨🇳 Zeekr, an electric vehicle brand of Chinese automaker Geely, raised US$750 million in a series A round backed by CATL, Quzhou Xin’an Intelligent Manufacturing Fund, Tongshang Fund, Yuexiu Industrial Fund, and Amnon Shashua.
🇮🇳 PhonePe is an Indian mobile payment app that allows users to transfer money. It closed a US$100 million late-stage round. Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds, and Tiger Global Management participated in the fundraise.
🇸🇬 Aspire, a Singapore-based startup providing banking solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises, bagged US$100 million in series C money from LGT Capital Partners, Lightspeed, PayPal Ventures, Sequoia Capital SEA, and Tencent Investment.
🇯🇵 Baseconnect is the company behind Musubu, an information database that supports corporate sales. Based in Japan, the firm nabbed US$43.2 million in a series B round from Jafco Group, Japan Post Capital, The Kyoto Shinkin Bank, NTT DoCoMo Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Uzabase, Z Venture Capital, and en-Japan.
🇻🇳 BuyMed is the Vietnam-based firm that operates Thuocsi, a B2B platform for healthcare and personal care distribution. It netted US$33.5 million in series B money from Cocoon Capital, Smilegate Investment, and UOB Venture Management.
Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: 74 deals worth over US$1.2 billion.
M&As
🇮🇳 Healthtech firm MediBuddy has acquired vHealth by Aetna, the Indian telehealth arm of US-headquartered healthcare company Aetna. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Startups that are raising funds
Killer pitch decks
Exclusive listicles
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