Podium has secured investment led by Accelerating Asia, while The Librarian, a Seattle- and Singapore-headquartered AI productivity startup, has raised $2 million in seed financing. In a separate development, Japan’s NTT DOCOMO Ventures and NTT Finance Corporation will jointly set up a new investment vehicle, which will be based in Singapore.
Podium raises funding led by Accelerating Asia
Podium, a Singapore-based peer discovery and connection platform for women, has secured a six-figure first investment led by Accelerating Asia, with more than half of the capital coming from its user base.
The funding drew backing from members in their 30s and 40s across Google, Amazon, banking, and entrepreneurial sectors. Many were paying users before deciding to invest—a dynamic the founders say underscores the product’s relevance.
With the fresh capital, Podium plans to invest in product development, expand its Singapore operations, and grow its core team. It is also studying selective overseas expansion in global mobility hubs.
Co-founder Alka Gupta said: “Our investors have lived the product before choosing to support it,” she said in a statement.
Podium was launched by Mai Vo, a former Google executive, and Gupta, previously with Grab and BukuWarung. The pair created the platform after struggling to find networks that aligned with their life transitions. They piloted more than 65 offline events in 2024 before formalising the membership model.
The company structures its offering across three layers: AI-enabled discovery that matches women by ambition and life stage; curated in-person sessions; and programmes designed to deepen accountability and long-term community building.
Within nine months of being bootstrapped, Podium has grown to over 300 paying members and accumulated hundreds on its waitlist, driven entirely by referrals. The platform reports an 80% quarterly retention rate.
The Librarian bags $2m led by GGV
The Librarian, a Seattle- and Singapore-headquartered AI productivity startup, has raised $2 million in seed financing led by Golden Gate Ventures, with participation from several angel investors, including Yelp co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman.
Operating through WhatsApp, SMS, and iMessage, the platform positions itself as an “executive assistant in your pocket,” targeting real estate agents, insurance advisors, and executives who rely heavily on mobile workflows. The tool handles scheduling, briefs, follow-ups, and cross-platform execution across email, shared drives, Slack, LinkedIn and more.
The company says adoption has reached 25,000 active users in six months, supported by high retention. Co-founders Neil Kumar and Tiago Alves attribute the traction to frictionless onboarding and deep integrations.
The platform claims it can save professionals up to 40 hours of assistant-type tasks each month by handling scheduling, reminders, document retrieval, and follow-ups through simple chat or voice prompts. These functions differentiate themselves from Siri, Alexa, and other AI assistants by operating across third-party tools rather than within a proprietary ecosystem.
The Librarian’s user base has grown to 25,000 active users across the US, Europe, and Singapore, supported by retention metrics the company says are among the strongest in the AI productivity category. CEO Tiago Alves, who previously scaled consumer platforms from 10 million to over 100 million users, attributed the traction to zero-friction onboarding.
The fresh capital will go toward expanding integrations, strengthening the platform’s underlying architecture, and building out engineering, product, and go-to-market teams. The founders describe the product as the early foundation of a broader category of mobile-first, cross-platform AI assistants designed for real-world professionals.
NTT Group launches SE Asia-focused fund
NTT DOCOMO Ventures and NTT Finance Corporation will jointly set up a new investment vehicle, Synexia Ventures, announced during the NTT Startup Challenge Pitch Day event in Jakarta.
The vehicle, to be formally established on December 15, will target opportunities in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, focusing on sectors aligned with NTT Group’s strategic priorities, including AI, IoT, smart cities, robotics, and drones, to drive open innovation across the group.
Synexia Ventures will be headquartered in Singapore and jointly managed by Kuan Hsu, general partner at KK Fund, alongside investment teams from NTT DOCOMO Ventures and NTT Finance. Hsu will oversee Southeast Asia operations and lead deal signing, drawing on his long-standing venture experience in the region.
Since 2017, the NTT Group has engaged with regional startups through its “NTT Com Startup Challenge”. In 2024, the programme was expanded and rebranded as the “NTT Startup Challenge” to encompass the broader group. At the recent Pitch Day held in Jakarta on 11 November 2025, approximately 1,200 startups applied to engage with the NTT Group, marking its largest startup contest in Southeast Asia to date.
