Daily Briefing: Cocoon Capital raises US$22m seed fund; Startup Trax becomes Singapore's second unicorn

And the number of babies born in Singapore fell to an eight-year low in 2018.

From Reuters:

Warburg Pincus-backed image recognition technology firm Trax, said it has raised US$100m in its latest funding round, becoming Singapore’s second unicorn.

“Trax will use this latest round of funding to further support the global expansion of the company and accelerate mass-market deployment of its retail solutions,” the startup said, adding it hoped to increase its footprint in China.

The statement did not mention a valuation, but a source with direct knowledge of the deal said Trax was valued at US$1.3b after the latest round.

Read more here. 

From e27:

Cocoon Capital, the early-stage venture firm in Southeast Asia, has announced it has raised US$22m ($30m) and will use the funding to back enterprise tech startups around the region.

Cocoon Capital’s second fund plans to back the enterprise tech market with medtech, fintech, insurtech, and general “deep” tech sectors as primary targets.

Along with the funding announcement, the firm also announced its initiative of hosting public mentoring hours regularly in partnership with local accelerators and co-working spaces in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Yangon in a bid to help grow the local entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Cocoon Capital was founded by Michael Blakey and Will Klippgen, who both are early-stage investors in Asia. 

Read more here. 

From Channel NewsAsia:

The number of babies born in Singapore fell to its lowest in eight years in 2018, according to data released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). A total of 39,039 babies were born last year, a 1.5% drop from 2017, said the annual report published in June.

Within the eight-year period, the highest number of births was recorded in the year of the dragon, in 2012, with 42,663 births.

Singapore's fertility rate last year is 1.14, according to Singapore's Department of Statistics (SingStat), compared to 1.16 in 2017.

Read more here.