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Welcome to another edition of 🔍 Startup Researcher - Asia, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region 🌏️
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📰 Important News
- South Korean spacetech startup Innospace is set to launch its first private rocket, Hanbit-Nano, from Brazil, aiming to deploy eight payloads.
- Nadiem Makarim denied personally receiving $48.5 million in Indonesia’s Chromebook case, saying the funds were a Gojek corporate transaction.
- OJK licensed 29 crypto platforms including Indodax and Tokocrypto, strengthening Indonesia’s crypto regulatory framework.
- Botshare launched China’s first open robot-leasing platform in Shanghai, expanding RaaS access across 50 cities.
- Mswipe Technologies secured its final RBI payment aggregator license, enabling full online and offline merchant payment processing.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- DP Technology secured $114 million in a Series C round to scale R&D and hire talent for AI-driven scientific discovery.
- Sensa Core raised $72 million from Motilal Oswal Alternates to accelerate product development and global expansion.
- CoreEL Technologies closed $30 million in a Series B led by ValueQuest Scale Fund and 360 ONE Asset to expand operations.
- MinoSpace announced raising $9.9 million in equity financing during FY2025 to boost R&D, expand production, and prepare future space missions.
- SocialGood Inc raised $5.6 million in Series B funding, bringing total capital to $15.4 million to scale its Bitcoin reward model.
💰️ IPO and M&A Watch
- Zepto reportedly prefiled a confidential DRHP with Sebi on December 26, aiming for an IPO in 2026.
- ByteDance is facing renewed scrutiny as China’s commerce ministry weighed in on the TikTok U.S. deal led by Oracle, highlighting geopolitical exit risk.
- Cautio acquired BYTES to build a full-stack, intelligence-led safety platform for India’s two-wheeler market.
- HangzhouDeep Roboticsentered mandatory tutoring for a domestic IPO, signaling exit readiness among China’s robotics hardware startups.
🏦 About Investors
- China launched three VC funds exceeding $320 million-plus each to scale hard tech investment across semiconductors, robotics, AI, and clean energy.
- HashKey Capital announced the first close of its $250 million Fund IV to accelerate global blockchain adoption and digital asset use cases.
- Anicut Capital closed its oversubscribed $154 million Grand Anicut Fund IV to back startups via private credit across sectors.
- NTT DOCOMO launched the $95.7 million DOCOMO Innovation Fund IV to deepen collaboration with high-potential startups.
- Nikhil Kamath and Kishore Biyani launched The Foundery to back early startups with seed funding up to $447,000.
🚀 Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
DP Technology
DP Technology, founded in 2018 in Beijing by Peking University alumni, is building core AI-for-Science infrastructure to accelerate discovery across life sciences, materials science, and energy. The company develops a full-stack research platform spanning molecular simulation, cloud research tools, lab operating systems, and AI-driven drug and battery design. Led by CEO Sun Weijie alongside founder and chief scientist Zhang Linfeng, DP Technology recently raised $114 million+ in a Series C backed by Fortune Venture Capital, Lenovo Capital, and Oriza Hua. The funding is being deployed to scale R&D and recruit top scientific talent, reinforcing DP Technology’s ambition to build “AI scientists” that serve as foundational infrastructure for the next era of scientific discovery.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
HashKey Capital
HashKey Capital, founded in 2018 as the investment arm of HashKey Group, is a global blockchain-focused VC and asset manager bridging institutional capital and on-chain innovation. Headquartered in Hong Kong with hubs in Singapore and Japan, the firm backs infrastructure, scalable platforms, and mass-adoption use cases across public and private markets. Its latest move, the $250 million first close of Fund IV, underscored sustained institutional appetite, with a $500 million target AUM. Led by CEO Deng Chao and founder Dr. Xiao Feng, HashKey manages $1 billion+ AUM and a 400+ project portfolio, including early bets like Ethereum. Its edge lies in regulated market access, ETF leadership, and a unique East–West bridge powering global Web3 adoption.
🤑 Opportunity Radar
Call for Applications: Hub71+ Life Sciences Health Innovation Program
Hub71+ Life Sciences in Abu Dhabi is now accepting applications for Cohort 19 with a deadline of February 1, 2026. Startups receive $70,000 cash via SAFE plus $70,000 in in-kind support, alongside mentorship, capital access, and corporate partnerships. Targeted at biotech, MedTech, and digital health founders, onboarding begins June 2026 with the program kicking off in September 2026. Apply now to scale with a global health innovation ecosystem behind you.
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