Bloomberg Aspire Pte, a fintech startup serving businesses, raised $100 million in a round that more than doubled its valuation, defying a market downturn for young tech firms. The Singapore-based company said in a statement it struck a deal for financing led by Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia. Paypal Ventures, Tencent Holdings Ltd, LGT Capital Partners and previous ...

  Bloomberg Embattled tycoon Gautam Adani’s challenges have knocked the confidence of strategic insurance investors seeking to establish partnerships in India, according to Bain & Co’s mergers and acquisitions head for Asia Pacific. Global firms, which typically hold significant stakes in the government-regulated sector, are worried about finding strong local partners who they can trust, said Bain’s Harshveer Singh. “They ...

Bloomberg India is likely to witness more extreme weather events, including intense heat waves, heavy flooding and severe drought that pose challenges to food and energy security for the second-most populous nation. “The extremes are increasing — hot is becoming hotter and cold is becoming colder,” said M Ravichandran, the top bureaucrat at the country’s earth sciences ministry. This trend ...