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Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: After Asia's impressive run in 2018 that set record high, economic uncertainty and trade concerns appear to have taken a toll on venture capital (VC) investment in Asia during the first quarter of 2019.
VC investment in Asia fell in Q1'19, dropping from $21.4bn in Q4'18 to $13 bn in Q1'19, said KPMG Enterprise's Venture Pulse report.
A shortage of $1bn+ mega-deals likely contributed to the decline in VC investment in Asia quarter over quarter, but some big bright spots remained.
Grab Taxi in Singapore attracted $4.5bn, Chehaoduo received $1.5bn and Beijing-based AI company Horizon Robotics raised $600m in early-stage funding.
The top 5 deals were rounded out by Beijing-based Danke Apartment which raised $500 m and Shanghai-based Weltmeister Motor which raised $446m led by Baidu.
In addition to Grab Taxi, Southeast Asia also saw several large deals including Lalamove in Thailand, Ola in India and Zilingo in Singapore.
Despite the big raise by Chehaoduo Group, VC investment in China dropped overall in Q1'19 as VC investors grew somewhat more cautious.
While India did not see any $1bn+ rounds this quarter, the country attracted several $100m+ deals, including a $413-m round by e-commerce-focused logistics company Delhivery, led by the SoftBank Vision Fund - an investment which lifted the company to unicorn status. SoftBank was particularly active in India in Q1'19, also making a $60m investm...................... To view our full article Click here
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