FOMO Saturday

Hello reader,

AI may feel like it lives in the cloud, but the physical infrastructure behind it is far from weightless. In reality, every model, agent, and chatbot needs land, chips, water, and a lot of power. Now multiply that by a gazillion.

As demand for AI climbs, its physical footprint is becoming harder to ignore.

This week's biggest deal is a red-hot reminder of that. Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus Technologies has raised a whopping US$2 billion - and no, it's not making another chatbot. It is building AI factories designed to run heavy compute more efficiently across Australia and Asia Pacific.

That puts sustainability back in the business model conversation.

You can find all other important investment deals from the last few days in our weekly funding news wrap-up.

Let's dive into the biggest deals and M&As that have recently taken place.

-- Lilian

THE BIGGEST DEALS BY MARKET

🇦🇺 Firmus Technologies builds and operates AI factories and graphics processing unit cloud services. It has bagged US$2 billion in a strategic investment round from Blackstone, Coatue Management, Jane Street, and Nvidia.

🇨🇳 Aureka focuses on the development of generative antibody drugs. Headquartered in China, the firm has secured US$100 million in series B money from Granite Asia, HighLight Capital, Matrix Partners China, Newley Capital, and Qiming Venture Partners.

🇮🇳 Yulu is an India-based shared micro-mobility service provider. It has raised US$93 million in a series C round from GEF Capital Partners.

🇮🇱 Based in Israel, which is located in West Asia, Corma is developing foundation models for defensive cybersecurity. The startup has bagged US$60 million in seed funding from Coatue Management, Khosla Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.

🇸🇬 Graas is a retail commerce AI firm that hails from Singapore. It has secured US$17 million in series B money from Integra Partners, LemmaTree, and Tin Men Capital.

Here's the complete list of this week's funding chart: 74 deals worth over US$2.4 billion.

M&AS

🇸🇬 Trustana, a Singapore-based AI product data platform, has been acquired by Graas for an undisclosed sum.

🇮🇳 StarOps, a spacecraft engineering company headquartered in India, has been acquired by Earth observation startup GalaxEye for an undisclosed amount.

STARTUPS THAT ARE RAISING FUNDS

Fundraising is hard. To make things slightly easier, we've compiled this list of fundraising startups for our subscribers. Do you run a startup that's raising at the moment or know someone who does? Sign your company up for listing here.

Here's a preview of the startups:

🇮🇳 This startup from India develops low-cost polymer electrolyte membrane hydrogen fuel cells.

🇮🇩 Based in Indonesia, this firm operates an AI-based digital platform related to real estate services.

🇮🇳 This India-headquartered startup specializes in satellite propulsion, on-orbit servicing, and space robotics.

You can find the full list of fundraising startups in Asia over here.

BEHIND THE GLASSWALL

Fundraising often involves reaching out to several contacts, many of whom founders might not have dealt with before. To provide some transparency to this process, we created Glasswall, a platform for founders to give feedback and recommendations on investors. Check out the full list here.

• ✅︎ "Very friendly and straightforward. We got a yes from the IC just a few hours after the meeting." - Read more
• ❌ "Long-winded, old-fashioned, complete waste of time." - Read more
• ✅︎ "They invest in funds as well but have Singapore-centric requirements. They are LPs in some of the other better-reviewed funds listed here. Quite discerning." - Read more

SCALING AI FOR MILLIONS

A deep dive with Grab's chief product officer

Grab is more than just a super app. It uses AI to manage its vast network of users, drivers, and businesses. As chief product officer, Philipp Kandal leads the product and technical strategy behind the millions of daily transactions on the platform across Southeast Asia.

Moving AI out of the lab and into a real-time consumer environment requires an infrastructure that cannot fail. This in-depth fireside chat pulls back the curtain on Grab's AI machinery, revealing hard-won lessons on making intelligence reliable at a regional scale. From supporting consumer-facing features to ensuring operational consistency, Philipp shares the roadmap for building AI that survives the pressure of a massive, high-velocity ecosystem.

Catch this session only at Tech in Asia Conference, ticket prices start from US$31.

EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES

Lists of most active investors in the region

China | India | Indonesia | Japan | Singapore | Southeast Asia

List of top-funded startups in Asia

China | India | Indonesia | Israel | Japan | Hong Kong | Singapore | South Korea | Vietnam

THOUGHTFUL READS

1️⃣ Who's reviewing the reviewer?

AI is helping people write more code. Naturally, the next business opportunity lies in making sure that code does not create new problems. According to this Reuters piece, CodeRabbit's latest US$143 million fundraise shows that review and verification are becoming increasingly important in the AI software boom.

2️⃣ When MTV made the rules

Remember when MTV played music videos and was the center of youth culture? In this episode of the Masters of Scale podcast, MTV co-founder Tom Freston looks at how that happened - hiring unexpected people, listening closely to the audience, and knowing which rules to bend.

3️⃣ Automating the paperwork

Let's be real - procurement is not exactly the most glamorous department, unless compliance is your love language. That's why agentic AI might actually make sense in this space. Find out how procurement makes a useful test case for whether AI agents can move from pilot projects into real business functions in this Harvard Business Review article.

4️⃣ Demo day, then what?

Between startup meetings and strategic buzzwords, corporate venturing can sometimes feel like a shiny side quest. In this Global Corporate Venturing interview, Bosch Ventures managing director Philipp Rose talks about why CVCs need a clear purpose, and why working with startups does not always have to mean investing in them.

5️⃣ Giving up the seat

Software pricing used to be simple: one user, one "seat". But AI might not be keeping the seat warm much longer. This Business Insider piece explains why legal AI startup Legora is shifting toward usage-based pricing. The rationale: A flat rate no longer makes sense when one client barely uses the tool while another racks up heavy model costs.

Today's edition was written by Lilian Tang. It's edited by Mina Deocareza.

EVENTS HAPPENING

This is your last chance to be in the room Enterprise AI's next chapter gets decided at ignitePRO at BATIC on August 25 in BICC The Westin Resort, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Leaders from Meta, Microsoft, AWS, Nokia, Rakuten, Lazada, Telkom Indonesia, Telin, and more will set the direction of Asia's digital future. Seats are limited and registration closes soon. Sign up here.