India rockets to spacetech unicorn orbit

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Hello Betamax,

Houston, we have a unicorn. Specifically, India's first spacetech unicorn.

Okay, before we get carried away (get it?) and go full sci-fi here, let's talk numbers.

Skyroot Aerospace has raised US$60 million, pushing its valuation to US$1.1 billion. The firm is preparing to launch Vikram-1, India's first private orbital rocket, which admittedly sounds like something that should come with dramatic music.

But the more interesting bit here is closer to Earth. Space is no longer just government territory - it's becoming investable.

Let's hope this one reaches orbit.

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 that have recently taken place.

-- Lilian

THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY

🇰🇷 Upstage boosts work efficiency with industry-leading document processing engines and large language models. The South Korean startup has raised US$380.6 million from KDB Bank, Mirae Asset Financial Group, SK Networks, Sazze Partners, Woori Venture Partners, and the National Growth Fund.

🇨🇳 RoboScience (机科未来科技) has bagged US$143 million in series A funding. Headquartered in China, the company develops humanoid robots.

🇮🇳 Skyroot Aerospace is developing privately built space launch vehicles. The Indian firm has secured US$60 million from Arkam Ventures, GIC, MABS, Playbook Partners, and Sherpalo Ventures.

🇮🇱 ZyG provides an agentic operating system for ecommerce scale, helping transform great products into successful direct-to-consumer brands. Based in Israel, which is located in West Asia, the firm has raised US$60 million from Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Felix Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

🇸🇬 Brano Therapeutics is a spin-off startup from Duke-NUS Medical School, which focuses on unmet medical needs in cardio-metabolic diseases. Hailing from Singapore, the company has raised US$6.8 million from Live Ventures, Seeds Capital, SGInnovate, and Trinity Innovation Bioventure Singapore.

Here's the complete list of this week's funding chart: 37 deals worth over US$822 million.

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.

🇸🇬 This Singapore-based startup provides digital retail engine solutions supporting Southeast Asia's transition to electric vehicles and motorcycles.

🇰🇭 This Cambodian company digitizes pharmacy inventory and lets consumers search real-time medicine availability, pricing, and locations.

🇮🇳 This Indian firm enables SMEs and individual entrepreneurs to build and launch customized ecommerce stores effectively.

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.

✅︎ "They're quite different from your typical SEA VCs in a good way. A good breath of fresh air. Very down to earth." - Read more
❌ "Had one of the associates reach out via LinkedIn. Saying all the usual platitudes about how excited he would be to meet or speak. I replied, agreeing to the meeting/call (against my better judgement around speaking to associates and not partners). He then ghosted me. Out of courtesy, not necessity (as I was raised right!) - I followed up. Ghosted again. I guess it's indicative of how they would treat founders - so better I found out now rather than later! Sometimes it's better not to go for the brand name." - Read more
✅︎ "The Investible team was incredible in terms of being transparent where we were in the process, and the information they asked in the due diligence made sense and also helped us founders in thinking about our business and KPIs strategically." - Read more

SINGAPORE'S TOP AI CONFERENCE IS HERE

Moving from ideation to deployment

We've all seen the visionary keynotes and run the small-scale AI pilots, but for most enterprises across Asia, the majority of AI initiatives are still dying in the sandbox. In 2026, the winners and losers in AI won't be determined by who has the best ideas, but by who can turn them into production at scale.

Tech in Asia Conference returns to Singapore this September, and it aims to bridge the execution gap between startups and enterprises. We've redesigned the conference experience to optimize for high-stakes networking and real-world learning.

Ticket sales are now open. Get your early bird tickets here.

EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES

Lists of most active investors in the region

List of top-funded startups in Asia

THOUGHTFUL READS

1️⃣ The seed stage has trust issues

Fewer seed-funded startups are making it to series A, while investors are concentrating capital into supposedly stronger bets. Learn more about AI changing what investors look for in early-stage teams when you read this article from Crunchbase.

2️⃣ The price is not right

AI startups are moving fast. However, aggressive discounting may not be the shortcut they think it is, as pointed out by this piece from the Andreessen Horowitz website.

3️⃣ Boring is back

Hot take: Not every AI story needs to involve a frontier model or a humanoid robot. Main Street businesses are using AI to speed up things like market research, customer interviews, and idea testing. This piece published by media and software company Every dives deeper.

4️⃣ Debt, but make it venture

Late-stage venture debt hit decade highs in Q1 2026, with some AI startups turning to lenders instead of raising more equity. That's according to this PitchBook article. How are expensive AI valuations changing the funding menu?

5️⃣FOMO over AI

Global Corporate Venturing says corporate-backed funding jumped 370% in Q1 2026, driven by a narrow set of AI megadeals. FOMO much? Read this article to know more about big companies buying exposure before they get left behind.

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

EVENTS HAPPENING

You can also check out our curated list of trending tech events and Tech in Asia's signature events.

AI is scaling. But is it delivering results?

At Asia Economic Summit 2026 on June 17, the main stage session "Enterprises lookout: What happens after AI implementation" shifts the focus to this next phase. It examines what separates deployment from real performance and looks at where operating models evolve and AI is expected to deliver measurable impact under real business conditions.

Join the leaders defining the next decade of digital growth and get your regular release tickets at 50% off (US$288) today. Explore the full agenda.

Singapore's top AI conference is here

Ticket sales are now open.Get your early bird tickets here.

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