Editor’s note:
Google, Temasek, Meituan-Dianping, Astra International and Blibli, are all reportedly participating Go-Jek’s latest fundraising round, raising around US$1.2 billion.
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:
Indonesia: Indonesian conglomerate Astra International said on Monday it will invest $150 million in Go-Jek, joining the likes of Alphabet Inc’s Google in the ride-hailing start-up’s latest fundraising round. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore-headquartered and listed lender DBS Bank Ltd (DBS) announced on Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ)’s wealth management and retail banking businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Indonesia. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore’s state investor Temasek Holdings is reportedly looking to acquire ASX-listed Nextdc Ltd, a data centre services firm, according to a report by The Australian. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore insurtech startup Axinan founded in 2016 by Wei Zhu, a former CTO of Grab, has raised an undisclosed funding in a Series A round led by NSI Ventures, with existing investor Linear Venture joining the round with other backers. (e27)
Singapore: The investment arm of Spring Singapore, Spring Seeds Capital (SSC), has appointed nine co-investment partners in a bid to catalyse more than S$200 million of investments into early stage startups over the next eight years. (The Straits Times)
Indonesia: Indonesian retail tech startup Warung Pintar has announced that it has secured a $4-million seed funding from SMDV, Digital Garage, East Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partner, Triputra Group and various angel investors. (Deal Street Asia)
The Philippines: Sino-Hong Kong conglomerate Freeman FinTech Corp Ltd is exploring investment opportunities in the Philippines especially in the country’s banking sector that has just recently been further opened up to foreign investors. According to an Inquirer report, officials of the Hong Kong-listed financial conglomerate recently met with central bank officials and executives of the Philippine Stock Exchange and local lender Rizal Commercial Banking Corp to get a briefer on the country’s investment climate. (Deal Street Asia)
Thailand: Masii.com, a Bangkok-based online comparison platform for financial products, has completed a 77 million baht ($2.43 million) Series A round to accelerate its growth and scale up new verticals. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia & Vietnam: RHB Bank Bhd, Malaysia’s fourth-largest lender by assets, has announced that it plans to acquire the 51 percent stake in Vietnam Securities Corporation (VNSEC) it does not currently own for VND121.63 million ($5.37 million) in cash. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: Vietnamese startups raised $290 million in 2017, 42 percent higher than $205 million last year, on the back of a couple of bigger ticket-sized deals including investments into gourmet media platform Foody Corporation and e-commerce player Tiki, according to data collated by Hanoi-based edtech group and accelerator Topica Founder Institute (TFI). (Deal Street Asia)
China:
China’s Didi Chuxing is inching towards a driverless future as the company reportedly adds two more self-driving vehicles to public road tests, according to a Financial Times report. (KrASIA)
Tencent is exploring opportunities in a US$30 to 40 million investment in India’s news and entertainment content aggregator NewsDog, according to India’s business and financial website Live Mint, citing sources familiar with the matter. (KrASIA)
Alibaba ’s entertainment arm has signed a licensing agreement with Walt Disney Co in a deal that will provide the Chinese group’s Youku video streaming platform with the largest Disney animation collection in China. (Reuters)
CITIC Capital’s private equity arm has led a consortium including Beijing-based media company Caixin Global to acquire financial information database operator Global Marketing Intelligence Division (GMID) from Europe’s Euromoney Institutional Investor for $180.5 million. (Deal Street Asia)
China’s co-working space UCOMMUNE (previously known as UrWork) just received an additional RMB 110 million strategic investment from the Shenzhen-based Qianhai Wutong Mergers and Acquisitions Funds. (Technode)
China’s government is leaning toward allowing provinces continue with local subsidies for electric vehicles to sustain the rising demand for new-energy automobiles in the country. (Bloomberg)
China’s regulators in Beijing and Guangzhou claimed to investigate into video platforms’ distribution of inappropriate videos dedicated to children. Video platforms involved include Tencent-backed Youku and Iqiyi, as well as Baidu’s Haokan. (The Beijing News)
Video streaming platform AcFun resumed operation. (AcFun)
SIG led an investment in Haoqipei, a B2B platform for auto parts founded in 2016. (36Kr)
World:
Instacart raised $200 million in a round led by investment firms Coatue Management and Glade Brook Capital Partners, the company told Bloomberg on Monday. The money will help Instacart defend against programs like the one Amazon made public on Thursday: It’s testing free two-hour delivery of Whole Foods groceries to Prime customers in four U.S. cities. (Bloomberg)
Amazon paid about $90 million to acquire the maker of Blink home security cameras late last year, in a secret bet on the startup’s energy-efficient chips. (Reuters)
Hyundai Motor, a latecomer to electrification and autonomous driving, is betting against individuals owning robot cars and preparing for a future in which the biggest buyers will be ride-sharing giants such as Uber, Lyft and GrabTaxi Holdings. The South Korean automaker said last month it invested in Singapore-based Grab, Southeast Asia’s biggest cab-hailing service. (Bloomberg)
Google is working on an overhaul of its Android mobile software for a new generation of smartphones mimicking Apple’s controversial new “notch” at the top of the iPhone X, according to people familiar with the situation. (Bloomberg)
Amazon is cutting several hundred jobs in Seattle, and hundreds elsewhere, a rare layoff that appears to fall predominantly on its established consumer retail business. The company continues to hire aggressively in other areas. (The Seattle Times)
In an effort to combat drowsy driving, Uber announced that it would require its most frequent drivers to take six-hour breaks after driving for 12 hours straight. Uber is updating the driver version of the app so that it logs off after counting 12 hours of driving, and drivers will not be able to log on until after the app registers six hours offline. (The Verge)
Oracle announces plans to quadruple number of data-center complexes over next two years, with 12 new data-center regions, including two in the US, two in Canada. (Techmeme)
An emerging cryptocurrency startup more commonly known as LoopX has suddenly vanished out of thin air along with millions worth of its investors’ savings. (The Next Web)
Privacy rights campaigners are claiming victory over Facebook in a German legal battle. It follows a regional court ruling that found some of the social network’s data consent policies to be invalid. (BBC)