5 in 5 minutes - July 14

CompareAsia secures US$50M from Alibaba and more

Hong Kong-based CompareAsia has raised US$50 million in a Series B round led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, with the participation from Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, SBI Group, and H&Q Utrust. Existing investors, including Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Nova Founders Capital, ACE & Co., and Route 66 Ventures also participated.

The latest round brings its total amount of funding to US$96 million. CompareAisa had raised US$40 million from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and others in 2015.

Hong Kong-based VC firm leads Droom's US$20M Series C funding round

Droom, an India-based mobile-first marketplace for automobiles, has raised US$20 million in Series C in a round led by Hong Kong's Integrated Asset Management and Japan's Digital Garage. Existing investors also participated in the round. The funding will be used to build on its tech platform and drive greater adoption of its tools.

Agorize Asia teams up with SoInSoGood for Asia's first Social /Green-Tech Innovation Challenge

Agorize Asia and SoInSoGood partnered for the TechForGood Challenge, an online startup competition that aims to help green-tech and social-tech startups to validate their ideas and scale their business.

7 winning teams were selected out of 40 teams, SoInSoGood will work together with the winning teams to bring about positive impacts for the world. The social-tech incubator, SoInSoGood, will focus on accelerating entrepreneurs, connecting them with the network of experts and VCs.

The MIT-Chief x ACT Lab Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum bridges supply chain gaps

On July 8, ACT Lab invited a select group of MIT students from the MIT-CHIEF Tech Show in Boston, chosen for their superior advances in AI, robotics, biotech and advanced materials to learn about and see hardware and supply chain first hand. ACT Lab is a hardware ecosystem for Robotics and AI whose goal is to find, foster, and support innovative startups.  

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China's UrWork raises US$29.4M in Series C

UrWork, China-based co-working space provider has secured US$29.4 million in Series C from Beijing Love & Health Group. Beijing Love & Health Group and UrWork will co-develop a novel co-working model, set to launch in the first half of 2018.

UrWork has raised US$58.8 million in Series B from Star Group two months earlier. Founded in 2015 by real-estate veteran Daqing, UrWork is one of the biggest co-working space in China, providing startups, SMEs and corporate tenants with on-demand customized space solutions. UrWork is to open 150 locations in 32 cities worldwide including New York and London in the next three years.