OrtCloud, a Singaporean startup, raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding for its specialized cloud infrastructure designed for AI workloads. With clients like OpenAI and Samsung, it aims to enhance product development and expand in Asia Pacific and the U.S.

Bytedance denied reports of researcher Guo Daya joining its Seed team with a 100 million yuan salary. Guo confirmed his role as an Agent lead, but salary details are undisclosed, while compensation structures for the team are uniform.

Pumpcade, a Solana-based platform for Meme coin creation and prediction markets, secured $5 million in seed funding from investors like Jump Crypto and Foundation Capital. This follows a $1 million extension round on April 2.

ByteDance has denied reports of offering 100 million yuan to recruit ex-researcher Guo Daya. VP Li Liang confirmed that all technical staff have the same compensation structure and recent hires did not exceed 100 million yuan, although options might yield significant returns over time.

Quantitative AI trading platform AlphaNet secures $10 million in seed funding, preparing for a public launch with over 30 high-performing strategies. Plans include an Open Platform for strategy integration by 2026, aiming for 100+ strategies.

Southeast Asian tech startups raised $2.8 billion in Q1 2026, a 110% year-on-year increase. Late-stage funding surged, driven by AI investments, while seed funding declined. Singapore dominated the funding landscape, with significant growth in fintech and emerging hubs in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Claw Intelligence has secured $3 million in seed funding to simplify user interactions with Web3 ecosystems. Its platform uses a Model Context Protocol to streamline data and includes features like a secure code execution sandbox and LLM-powered device control.

Nava, a blockchain startup, raised $8.3 million in seed funding to create a custody and verification framework that prevents unauthorized transactions by AI financial agents, enhancing asset security and transparency.

Varys Capital venture investment chief Tom Dunleavy noted that in the past six months, the crypto VC funding environment has changed significantly: well-funded projects are proactively coming to them, while most VC capital has run out or shifted to late-stage investments, extending the fundraising cycle to 2–3 months. Only a few institutions are still making early-stage investments, and in the future they may see investment opportunities on a historic scale.

The RWA Layer1 public chain SimpleChain officially launched its testnet on April 10 and initiated an ecosystem airdrop program. Users can obtain points through testnet tasks, and these points will serve as the basis for future token airdrops. Team members come from Qianch Qin Technology and Ant Group, and have completed a $15 million seed round. The testnet verifies core capabilities, including trusted data services, a compliance engine, and asset issuance protocols.