Editor’s note:
PasarPolis allows users to compare and buy insurance policies on its portal and is valued at USD 12 million, a source told Deal Street Asia. Go-Jek is cooperating with the startup to offer insurance to its drivers.
The startup is believed to follow China’s ZhongAn’s Business model. The Chinese company is the first online insurance company in the country backed by Alibaba’s financial arm Ant Financial, Tencent and Ping An.
KrASIA 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: Go-Jek, Traveloka, and Tokopedia are in advanced discussions to invest in insurance tech (insurtech) startup PasarPolis, according to three people aware of the development. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore & Indonesia: Grab experienced technical issues in its operations in Singapore and Indonesia this morning. In Singapore, users were unable to use the platform’s cashless payment feature GrabPay. (e27)
Singapore: Singapore‘s central bank is assessing whether additional regulations are required to protect investors in cryptocurrencies, an official said in a speech on Thursday. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has entered into an MX$5.5 billion ($291.72 million) joint venture (JV) with CCLA to develop and operate purpose-built, for-rent multi-family buildings across Mexico’s largest cities. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singapore’s Temasek has led a $24.7-million Series A round in California-headquartered Perfect Day, an animal-free dairy producer, marking yet another investment by the sovereign wealth fund in the emerging food tech space. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore: Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited is likely to come in as a large shareholder in Vietcombank when it pares 10 percent stake or 350 million shares to foreign investors during the first half of this year after receiving approval from the government, Nikkei Asian Review reported. (Deal Street Asia)
Indonesia: Indonesian fashion e-commerce app LYKE is shutting down its service. In a press statement, the company said that the majority of the startup’s employees will be joining Chinese fashion and lifestyle e-commerce startup JollyChic, which had just entered the Indonesian market last year. (e27)
Malaysia: Malaysian tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan’s company is poised to lose a total of about $7 billion from a failed 12-year foray in the Indian wireless market, marking his biggest-ever hit on a soured investment, people with knowledge of the matter said. (Deal Street Asia)
China:
E-commerce platform Shopee is capitalizing on high demand for China-sold products with the launch of its new China Marketplace on Thursday (Mar 1). Singapore users will be able to order goods from Chinese sellers via the portal, without any shipping and agent fees. (Business Insider)
Meituan-Dianping, the world’s largest O2O lifestyle platform, is poised to extend its ride-hailing pilot to Shanghai on March 16, according to Tencent’s media unit Yixian. The e-commerce major is also said to launch the service on its dedicated Meituan Dache (meaning Meituan ride-hailing) app in six other major cities in China in two weeks, including Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, and Xiamen. (36Kr)
Authorities have asked smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. to list its shares on the mainland, according to people familiar with the situation, who say the company is considering doing so with a dual listing. It already plans a Hong Kong initial public offering for the second half of the year. (WSJ)
A unit of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has invested $150 million in Zomato, valuing the Indian food search and delivery service at more than $1 billion, the companies said on Thursday. (Reuters)
The Chinese blockchain community is on edge as a widely anticipated regulatory crackdown is expected to be announced in a week or so. Some Wechat blockchain groups are being closed down, while rumors are flying about further policy tightening that could make China the most hostile ground for anything cryptocurrency related. (China Money Network)
China’s government aims to raise as much as 200 billion yuan ($31.5 billion) to invest in homegrown chip companies and accelerate its ambition of building a world-class semiconductor industry, people familiar with the matter said. (Deal Street Asia)
Shanghai-based hotels chain operator GreenTree Hospitality Group on Tuesday filed with the SEC to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering (IPO). (Deal Street Asia)
WeChat mini program-based game Tiaoyitiao has just landed its first advertisement from Nike worth RMB 20 million (USD 3.14 million). (36Kr)
World’s largest O2O platform Meituan-Dianping reported USD 5.4 billion in revenue and USD 57 billion in GMV in 2017. (36Kr)
LIN Fan, CEO at China’s social network platform for professionals Maimai.cn, says he doesn’t use Tencent’s WeChat as he spends most of his time on Maimai.cn’s products. LIN also revealed that the company is going to float on the U.S. stock market in 2019 and is expanding to international markets in the second half of 2019, meaning the Chinese company is going to face the competition with LinkedIn. (tech.sina)
Suning rolled out China’s first open platform that shares a blacklist of blockchain companies. (36Kr)
China’s car trading platform Chehaoduo has closed a USD 818 million Series C round led by Tencent with participation from investors including IDG Capital and Sequoia China. (36Kr)
James Mitchell, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Executive Vice President at Tencent: Just like a diamond, Bitcoin doesn’t have intrinsic value. Tencent will not invest in Bitcoin. (36Kr)
ZHOU Hongyi, CEO at Qihoo 360: More Chinese Internet companies are likely to list in China. (36Kr)
JD.com put the world’s first staff-less delivery station based in Shanxi in use. (tech.qq)
Chairman of Asia Pacific Investment Banking at JPMorgan, Brian Gu, joins EV maker Xiaopeng Motors as VP and vice chairman of the board. (tech.qq)
Tencent Music might be valued at approximately USD 12.3 billion, according to an estimation based on Spotify’s filing. (Wallstreetcn)
Sequoia Capital led a Series C round worth USD 50 million in Huangbaoche.com, a platform that provides car-renting and touristic services to Chinese tourists traveling abroad. (36Kr)
World:
On Thursday, Uber announced Uber Health, a new service targeted at healthcare providers in the US. It allows hospitals, doctors clinics, and other medical facilities to order rides for their patients. (Business Insider)
SoftBank just invested in yet another Uber competitor, only this time in a slightly different market. Food delivery start-up DoorDash, which goes head to head with Uber Eats, said Thursday it raised $535 million in a funding round led by SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund. (CNBC)
The Marshall Islands will issue its own cryptocurrency that will be circulated as legal tender along with the U.S. dollar, according to one of the remote Pacific republic’s top officials. (Reuters)
Dropbox announced plans to partner with Google to bring native G Suite integration to Dropbox storage. (Tech Crunch)