March Newsletter from Orbit Startups

Friends of Orbit,

We were thrilled to welcome over 600 investors, mentors and select partners to our recent demo day in Singapore and online. Meet the 6 breakthrough startups from Orbit 3 here (Docsend) and get in touch if you'd like to connect with them. Check out the highlights below and see you at our next events.

Until next time,

The Orbit team

ORBIT IN THE NEWS

Despite a nearly 40% drop in foreign funding from 2021, the correction in Indian private markets “doesn’t change the fact that India is going through an amazing technology-driven transformation of the economy," Orbit Startups MD William Bao Bean told the Financial Times. "One of the challenges is markets have short memories and India doesn’t have much of a memory because this is their first tech cycle,” William added. “As long-term investors, we are bullish."

Introducing Orbit 3 cohort with 6 breakthrough startups from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Colombia. Check out the recap of our 3-day demo week with an investor day, mentor dinner and venture workshop in addition to the classic demo day. 

FreeD Group ranks No.7 on Financial Times' 500 High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2023. FreeD develops digital solutions to enable brands such as Samsung, China Mobile, BMW and LG to offer lifestyle and travel services and has recently acquired Hong Kong's oldest travel agency Connexus Travel to expand its offerings.

Orbit-backed Indonesian staffing platform MyRobin was acquired by BetterPlace, a software startup that helps companies like Amazon manage their frontline workforce. More on Bloomberg.

Pakistan's second-hand clothing startup Swag Kicks raises $1.2M in seed funding, ProPakistan reports.

On International Women's Day, we celebrate the entrepreneurs who inspire our community every day. While women-founded startups raised only 1.9% of all VC funding in 2022, 34% of SOSV companies have at least one woman founder, and approximately $1 in every $3 that SOSV invests goes to a company led by a woman founder.

EVENTS

Sign up to get the insider view of how 3 Orbit-backed companies are empowering SMEs in Pakistan in this webinar hosted by Orbit Startups and PakLaunch on April 2.