Asia Tech Review

Upbit’s up-and-down week: $10 billion acquisition and $30 million hack

What could be worse than being hacked one day after your deal, and by North Korea too?

Dec 1 • 

Jon Russell

4

November 2025

Japan makes startup progress as General Atlantic makes first investment and AI startup hits record valuation

Unicorn valuations, global investors and cutting-edge tech show Japan’s startup ecosystem is maturing

Nov 24 • 

Jon Russell

8

1

1

Grab races after autonomous vehicle tech after making its largest investment bet ever

The Singapore-based ride-hailing company has backed five self-driving car startups since September

Nov 20 • 

Jon Russell

6

2

2

India’s IPO window blows open as investors make billions from Groww, Pine Labs and Lenskart

Peak XV made more than $2.5B as long-term bets paid handsomely in the same week

Nov 17 • 

Jon Russell

3

1

US AI companies turn their focus to India and Southeast Asia

Lower-priced products, new offices and carrier deals show the new focus is emerging markets

Nov 13 • 

Jon Russell

4

2

Chinese self-driving firms WeRide and Pony AI raise another $1B

Despite the vast sums, both firms saw their share prices fall

Nov 10 • 

Jon Russell

6

Google puts its AI focus on India with major partnership with Reliance Jio

The US firm is giving Jio customers 18-month access to its premium service for free

Nov 3 • 

Jon Russell

3

1

October 2025

Singapore-based Pave, a digital bank for the crypto industry, lands $45M from big name investors

Accel and Tether are among backers of startup that’s blurring lines of traditional banking

Oct 27 • 

Jon Russell

6

US government goes after Cambodian conglomerate for making billions from online scams

Houses, offices and $15B in bitcoin are among the initial assets seized

Oct 20 • 

Jon Russell

4

2

Anthropic is the latest AI giant to focus on India

As US giants pour in, India is boosting its homegrown champions to take on the competition

Oct 14 • 

Jon Russell

5

India’s homegrown WhatsApp rival surges past 7.5M downloads

Can chat app Arattai succeed where past social fads in India have fallen?

Oct 6 • 

Jon Russell

7

September 2025

Southeast Asia regresses to pre-unicorn era of VC funding

New report shows Southeast Asia lags other emerging markets as exits continue to be elusive

Sep 29 • 

Jon Russell

11

3