C4D Partners raises $30 million to invest in small businesses in Asia

The capital raised from the C4D Asia Fund's first close will back 50 small businesses in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, at least 30% of which will be women-owned and run.

Edukasyon raises fresh capital to help Filipino youth plan for school

The $10 million Gobi-Core Philippine Fund—an early-stage investment fund by Philippine-based Core Capital and Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur-based Gobi Partners—backed the company.

SEAF backs Vietnamese organic food retailer Organica

Organica helps farmers make the transition to organic farming and sells their products in its chain of organic food stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang.

KKR makes first “global impact” investment in Singapore’s Barghest Building Performance

The investment marks KKR's first impact investment, and comes before the firm has closed its first impact investment fund.

Japan’s Dai-ichi Life backs biotech venture Molcure

Tokyo-based Molcure is developing a machine learning-powered platform to support faster drug development and the discovery of new treatments for cancers and other diseases.

Northstar Group puts $50 million into Topica’s online education platform for Southeast Asia

Vietnam-based Topica offers online education ranging from English tutoring to entrepreneurship and skills training to university-level degrees across six countries in Asia.

Skype founder’s Oriente raises $105 million to bank Asia’s unbanked

The Hong Kong-based company was launched last year by Skype co-founder Geoffrey Prentice with a mission to use data science and artificial intelligence to develop alternative credit risk assessment for Asia’s unbanked, and provide them with digital lending and other financial services.