Led · Equity · Oct 2023

Drive lah is a car‑sharing platform that operates a car‑sharing service. The article reports the company has raised $5 million in an investment round. The round was led by transport major ComfortDelGro. The report does not provide operating metrics such as revenue or user counts. The article does not detail the company’s future plans or use of proceeds tied to the funding. No other investors or prior rounds are mentioned in the piece. Drive lah is a vehicle application that lets car owners earn income by renting idle cars to renters via a keyless, phone-based access system. The company says its proprietary in-car technology enables keyless access and that rentals are 30–40% cheaper than alternatives. Since launch it has accumulated over 150,000 registered users and argues the model can reduce underutilized car hours in dense cities. Drive lah aims to build a shared mobility ecosystem across the Asia Pacific and has just launched operations in Australia with plans to expand further next year. The firm completed Accelerating Asia’s 100-day acceleration programme and acquired fleet-based car-sharing service Smove in 2020. Drive lah was founded in 2019 and is based in Singapore.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2023

NEU Battery Materials is commercialising a proprietary process that recovers battery-grade lithium from end-of-life lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. In 2025 the company beat its 2028 critical technology benchmarks three years early, validated its process at pilot scale, and began semi-commercial operations in Singapore. The next step is a 1,300-ton-per-year semi-commercial plant that will handle a range of LFP feedstocks while lowering both cost and emissions relative to virgin lithium extraction. Growing global energy-storage deployments and new critical-mineral regulations in the U.S. and EU are driving demand for such circular-economy solutions. NEU has earned industry recognition, winning EPIC Hong Kong’s overall championship and placing as a Top 4 finalist at the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch Forum. With its recycling technology, the company aims to strengthen mineral security, reduce supply-chain risk, and support the clean-energy transition through strategic commercial partnerships and global collaborations.

Led · Series A · Jan 2023

Ottopia builds teleoperation software that lets humans in remote centers monitor, guide and directly control fleets of autonomous vehicles and machines. Its patented technology combines innovations in networking, video, user experience, cybersecurity, and integration with autonomous systems. The product is designed to help developers cut R&D costs, commercialize faster and meet regulatory requirements for deployment. Ottopia targets multiple industries including mobility, logistics, freight, last-mile delivery, agriculture, and construction. The company says its software has been tested and deployed in a variety of environments. It plans to accelerate rollout of its teleoperation platform to further enable autonomy across industries. Founded in 2018 by Amit Rosenzweig, Ottopia’s core product is a universal teleoperations platform that combines software with off‑the‑shelf hardware (monitors, cameras) to create teleoperations centers and includes assistive features that provide path instructions to autonomous vehicles. The company is a 25‑person team that packages its software and hardware into deployable teleoperations setups. Ottopia has built partnerships and investor relationships with BMW, May Mobility and Bestmile and recently announced a partnership with Via to integrate its teleoperations platform with Via’s fleet management software. Management plans to double headcount to 50 by year‑end and open a U.S. office, while expanding into defense, mining and logistics; however, most resources will remain focused on automotive deployments of cars, trucks and shuttles. Financially, Ottopia raised $9 million in a round led by Hyundai Motor Group, Maven and IN Venture, bringing total capital raised to $12 million to date. Ottopia, co-founded in 2018 by Amit Rosenzweig (CEO) and Leon Altarac (CTO), has built a software platform that lets human operators and a vehicle’s AI collaborate during remote interventions. The platform enables a human to assist an autonomous vehicle with decision-making in complex scenarios, after which the AV executes the decision while its full suite of sensors and safety measures remain engaged. The company plans to use the seed funding to expand its R&D team and to collaborate with autonomous-vehicle companies to validate and prove the safety of its platform. The article reports a $3M seed financing led by MizMaa Ventures with participation from Glory Ventures, Plug and Play and NextGear. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.