TechinAsia gets 2nd round of funding to continue covering tech and startups in the region

TechinAsia, a website that covers technology and startups in Asia, has received a second round of funding, led by Russia-based Simile Venture Partners. East Ventures, which invested in the first seed round in March 2011, also participated. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Founded in July 2009 as Penn Olson, the site has undergone quite a bit of changes since then. It rebranded to become TechinAsia last year, and its team now consists of 11 members from Japan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and the US.

It began organizing the Startup Asia conference in 2012, starting with the inaugural event in Singapore and moving on to Indonesia, drawing over 2,000 participants in total. The event will be returning to Singapore again on April 4-5.

“2012 has been a very challenging but fruitful year. Our team is happy with our traffic and revenue growth but we understand that there is always room for improvement,” said Willis Wee, founder of TechinAsia.

Simile Venture Partners, which describes itself as a super angel fund, invests in internet companies mainly in developing markets. Launched in June 2012, it typically funds up to USD 500k per startup.

The Russia-based firm has made investments in Brazil, Europe, and the US but now focuses on Turkey, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Another one of its investees is DocDoc, a Singapore-based web platform that connects patients to doctors.

Tatiana Kim, general partner at Simile Venture, has said that they invested in TechinAsia because access to credible tech news and information as well as quality events are crucial for developing the ecosystem.

East Ventures is a Singapore and Jakarta based early stage fund. So far, it has made 26 investments of between USD 50k to USD 500k each.