Author: Catherine Shu

[ad_1] Lai Ching-te, who gained Taiwan’s presidential election final Saturday, will likely be going through a crossroads within the nation’s expertise business when he takes workplace in Could. Lai’s administration would be the third time period of Democratic Progressive Occasion rule in Taiwan, and he’s extensively anticipated to proceed the work of his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, on the subject of supporting one of many nation’s largest financial drivers and most dear exports: its semiconductor business. However Lai has spoken a number of instances about Taiwan’s chips with out laying out particular insurance policies, and he might discover himself having to…

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[ad_1] After utilizing Figma to create consumer interfaces and experiences, builders are left with the hefty job of coding the designs with the intention to create useful web sites or apps. Locofy, a Singapore-based frontend improvement platform backed by Accel, needs to avoid wasting hours of labor with a one-click instrument that immediately turns Figma and AdobeXD prototypes into code. Locofy’s new instrument is known as Lightning and it’s constructed on high of the startup’s Giant Design Fashions (LDMs). Locofy’s founders, Honey Mittal and Sohaib Muhammed, evaluate it to how OpenAI pioneered LLMs earlier than ChatGPT launched them to the…

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[ad_1] Extra South Korean buyers are placing cash into Southeast Korea startups, creating an “funding hall” between the 2 areas. The newest one is KIPSEA. Quick for Korea Funding Companions Southeast Asia, KIPSEA has a Singapore-based group and simply introduced its first fund shut of $60 million. Restricted companions come from South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, and embrace Samsung Life Insurance coverage, Korea Growth Financial institution, Korea Progress Funding Company, Woomi International, Mirana Ventures and Korea Funding & Securities. KIPSEA head Synclare Kim tells TechCrunch that KIP is bullish on Southeast Asia due to how briskly the market is…

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[ad_1] Identification verification platform for companies, Bureau, has added $4.5 million in its Collection A, bringing its complete to $16.5 million. The funding was raised from GMO Enterprise Companions and GMO Cost Gateway. Different buyers within the spherical embody Quona Capital and Commerce Ventures. Bureau has now raised $20.5 million so far. Along with its new funding, it additionally introduced the acquisition of inVOID, a Y Combinator-backed id verification startup, and entered a strategic partnership with GMO Cost Gateway. Based in 2020, Bureau is headquartered in California, with groups in Dubai and India. It claims that during the last 12…

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[ad_1] Jenfi, a “growth-capital-as-a-service” platform, can present on-line companies with revenue-based financing in a bit of as a day. The Singapore-based startup introduced at the moment it has raised $6.6 million in pre-Sequence B funding, led by Headline Asia. Participation got here from returning investor Monk’s Hill Ventures, which led Jenfi’s Sequence A two years in the past, ICU Ventures, Granite Oak, Korea Funding Companions & Golden Equator Capital and Atlas Ventures. Since Jenfi’s inception 4 years in the past, it has deployed greater than $25 million in non-dilutive capital to about 600 firms. Its clients embody Gushcloud, Ralali, Whats up…

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[ad_1] Based in 2014, Blossom Finance was first supposed for Muslim entrepreneurs in the US. The microfinancing platform connects buyers with small companies utilizing mudarabah, a shariah-compliant profit-sharing settlement. However founder Matthew Joseph Martin quickly realized that the startup, backed by buyers like Increase VC and Tim Draper, was serving a comparatively area of interest market within the States. So he began researching markets with giant populations of Muslim individuals. Indonesia emerged as the only option. Southeast Asia is already dwelling to a thriving fintech scene, the place Seize, GoTo and Sea have constructed tremendous apps that embody monetary companies,…

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[ad_1] Jakarta-based fintech Akulaku has raised $200 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Monetary Group (MUFG), the most important financial institution in Japan. That is a part of a strategic funding, with startup and MUFG planning to increase into new markets and product collectively in 2023. Earlier this 12 months, Akulaku raised $100 million in funding from Siam Industrial Financial institution as a part of one other strategic funding. Its different backers embody Ant Group (Akulaku launched a BNPL partnership earlier this 12 months with Alipay+). Akulaku, which operates within the Philippines and Malaysia along with Indoensia, provides a digital bank card…

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[ad_1] For companies, defending logos is commonly a prolonged and costly course of, particularly if they’ve a number of manufacturers. Digip digitizes a lot of the method, serving to its clients file logos by themselves as a substitute of going to legislation companies. The Stockholm-based legaltech startup introduced at the moment it has added $1.3 million to its seed spherical, bringing the whole to $3.4 million. The brand new funding was led by Industrifonden and Seed X, with participation from household places of work and angel traders. Based in 2020, Digip now has 500 clients in 42 international locations, starting…

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[ad_1] Company volunteering is on the rise, as a solution to enhance an organization’s social influence whereas boosting worker engagement. Managing volunteer applications, nonetheless, can get tough. Goodera desires to make it simpler with an end-to-end platform that features pre-vetted volunteer alternatives and skilled hosts. The Utah-based startup introduced at the moment it has raised a $10 million Sequence A led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Zoom Ventures, Xto10X, Nexus Enterprise Companions and Omidyar Community. Former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and Flipkart founder Binny Bansal additionally contributed to the spherical. Goodera at present has volunteering openings from over 50,000…

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[ad_1] Inventive Fabrica, a market for digital recordsdata like print-on-demand belongings, fonts and graphics, introduced at the moment it is going to launch its personal generative AI instrument. Known as CF Spark, it’s already seen three million prompts generated, and greater than 500,000 printed by Inventive Fabrica creators over the previous three weeks. Like different digital belongings on the platform, customers can put up their generative AI recordsdata for paid use by different members, which Inventive Fabrica says makes it the primary generative AI that additionally permits creators to become profitable. Backed by buyers like Felix Capital, FJ Labs and…

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