Didi made a big move again.
After mopping up $4 billion investment and acquiring the beleaguered bike-sharing startup Bluegogo, Didi announced to have acquired Brazilian taxi and car-hailing company 99, making its ambition to expand in the global market crystal clear.
Kr-ASIA Daily is a five-minute read to brief you everything you need to know to start your day. We only choose the latest tech & startup news that is worth your time, with a focus on Southeast Asia and China.
Southeast Asia:
Malaysia: SoCar, South Korean ride-sharing startup, is set to launch its service in Malaysia, marking the foray into its first overseas market for expansion, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: City-state-based fund management firm Golden Equator appointed Taizo Son, founder of venture investor Mistletoe, as its special advisor. This move comes as a part of the partnership plan between Golden Equator and Mistletoe. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: China’s asset management company Cedarlake Huarong Group invested in healthcare company Novena Global Lifecare, marking its first healthcare investment in Singapore. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: US-based PE firm Vector Capital has completed a $450-million restructuring of two vintage funds, Vector Capital II and III, with Singapore’s GIC and Goldman Sachs becoming the largest LPs in the two funds. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Temasek led a led a $50 million Series B investment in PEAR Therapeutics, a US-based digital health firm PEAR Therapeutics. (Deal Street Asia)
The Philippines: SBS Philippines, the Philippines-listed chemical trading and distribution firm, is acquiring a warehouse facility for $10.42 million from a company owned by Coca Cola. (Deal Street Asia)
The Philippines: PLDT, the listed telecommunications and digital services mogul, has inked a $28.5-million agreement with China’s Huawei to improve the company’s wireless infrastructure. (Deal Street Asia)
Thailand: The first space technology startup in Thailand, mu Space Corp, plans to raise over $9.2 million this year as the company seeks business development and expansion. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Malaysia’s timber mogul, Samling Group, is planning an IPO of its automotive operations that could raise over $250 million. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Blockchain startup FundPlaces has raised $1.5 million from SGX-listed Global Yellow Pages. (e27)
Indonesia: Natali Ardianto, Co-founder and CTO of the online travel agency Ticket.com announced to be leaving the company. (e27)
China:
Didi acquired Brazilian taxi and car-hailing company 99, bolstering its international presence in a major ride-hail market. (Recode)
The US has blocked the $1.2bn merger agreement between money transfer firm Moneygram and Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of Alibaba. (BBC)
Tencent acquires third-party fund sales license. (36Kr)
Jinri Toutiao is recruiting editors to screen the content on its platform, after China’s regulators criticized the news aggregator for inappropriate content. (The Paper)
Faraday Future plans to price its model FF91 at $120,000 each, while the EV maker is still struggling with its unpaid debt to suppliers. (QQ.com)
Co-working space operator UrWork acquired co-working startup New Space. (Sina)
China’s Central Bank urges bitcoin mines to rectify inappropriate behavior and register with the government. (36Kr)
Alipay allows users to look back at their spending in 2017 with its annual bill feature. (cnBeta)
In 2018, China’s smartphone manufacturers are likely to seek to expand their presence in overseas markets, as the domestic market saturates. (huanqiu)
Revenue of China’s mobile games reached ¥18 billion (around $2.67 billion) in 2017, according to research institute Newzoo. (Sina)
Beijing is likely to have 3000 convenience stores by 2020, covering all the communities in the central city. (Xinhuanet)
Baidu and BlackBerry announced a collaboration, seeing the later to anchor Baidu’s autonomous driving platform Apollo. (Venture Beat)
China is planning to build a ￥13.8 billion ($2.1 billion) technology park dedicated to developing AI technologies. (CNBC)
The News Lens (TNL), an independent Taipei-based Chinese-language news site, has acquired technology news portal INSIDE. (e27)
World:
Spotify reportedly having filed IPO documents with the SEC at the end of December. (Axios)
Lyft partnered with Aptiv, the peer to peer Autonomous driving solution provider, to roll out a service that allows passengers to request self-driving rides from the Las Vegas Convention Center. (36Kr)
UK’s food delivery startup valued at $2 billion, Deliveroo, is preparing to launch in India. (The Times of India)
Computer security experts discovered two major security flaws, called Meltdown and Spectr, in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world’s computers. The two flows could allow hackers to steal the entire memory content of a computer while there is no easy fix for Spectre according to researchers. (nytimes)
Microsoft is issuing a security update to fix a newly discovered security bug. (The Verge)
Amazon is likely to acquire the second-largest discount store retailer in the US, Target Corp, while the timing is hard to predict, according to Loup Venture co-founder Gene Munster. (Bloomberg)
Apple wins patent for iPhone X design. (Huanqiu)
SpaceX posted short video showing its first Heavy Falcon on Instagram. (Sina)
Apple is likely to launch the second generation of iPhone SE in 2018, predicts market research company TrendForce. (cnBeta)
Apple issued new battery change policy, allowing users of iPhone 6 and all follow-up iPhones models to change battery without a battery check. (techweb)
2017 was a good year for Amazon, as Amazon Prime members have made 5 billion orders and the company’s market value rose to nearly $600 billion. (techweb)
India’s logistic and supply chain company Ekart announced a $260 million equity financing round from e-commerce giant Flipkart. (Tuoniao)