Chinese EV startup WM Motor’s $1.47b round drove up Asian funding in September

 

 

This article is part of a series of monthly reports where we keep track of tech funding activities in Asia.

In September, Asia saw over 500 deals made, which collectively were worth over US$10 billion. This doubled the US$5 billion in total funding across more than 400 deals that the region had recorded in August and represented a 38.6% increase in comparison with the same period last year.

Some of the top highlights of the previous month include Chinese electric vehicle WM Motor’s US$1.47 billion series D round of funding.

The Shanghai-based company was launched in 2015 by Freeman Shen who had been a top exec at automobile companies Fiat Automobiles, Geely Holding Group, and Volvo China.

Backed by search engine Baidu and tech giant Tencent, it goes up against EV startups Nio, Xpeng, and Li Auto. Following its series D round, WM Motors recently kicked off its initial public offering plan in the Nasdaq-like Shanghai Star Market.

Other major investments in September include those made in Indian companies Flipkart and Byju’s.

While it has been a bad year for funding in Asia in general, the same cannot be said of India: Startups in the country raised a total of US$38 billion in September, exceeding the US$24 billion and US$11 billion raised during the same period in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Half of Asia’s total funding amount last month went to China, followed by India (18%), South Korea (10%), Japan (7%), and Singapore (4%).

SOURCES

Data: Tech in Asia
Infographics: Susi Susanti
Analysis: Doris Yu
Editing: September Grace Mahino