Southeast Asia:
Go-Jek acquired a majority stake in payment service provider Kartuku for up to $50 million. Go-Jek and its rival Grab both position themselves as payment companies and plan to emulate the success of Alipay and WeChat Pay in Southeast Asia. Wishing to strengthen its technology hold, Go-Jek has made five acquisitions in the last one year. Chinese Tencent and JD invested respectively $1.2 billion and $100 million in Go-Jek. (DealStreetAsia)
Singapore’s central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a $20 million Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics Grant at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The money will be used to support the adoption and integration of the cutting-edge technology in financial institutions. The country seeks to secure its status as a global financial hub by promoting Fintech. The MAS has invested $165 million in Fintech over the five years. (e27,DealStreetAsia)
Active.Ai, a Singapore-headquartered Fintech startup, raised $8.25-million in a Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator. The company plans to expand its AI team and further develop its product. Triniti, Active.Ai’s AI powered engine uses natural language processing and machine learning to support chatbots used by financial institutions. (DealStreetAsia)
The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam signed MOU with Ant Financial to proliferate Alipay system across Vietnam. The deal aims to enable Chinese tourists to stay cashless. Earlier in September, the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform also signed MOU with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). (e27,STB)
China:
Compared to the third quarter of 2016, listed peer-to-peer lending platform Yirendai’s 303 million yuan net profit in the third quarter of 2017 dropped 12 percent. At the same time, the company’s net revenue surged 73% and hit 1.5 billion yuan. (36Kr)
Qihoo 360，the Chinese internet security company, launched a dedicated short video app dubbed Kuai video. The new app aims to provide rich content in short videos which last no more than one minute. The company also rolled out a 10-billion yuan project to support original content maker. (36kr)
BOE reached a strategic partnership with Alibaba and SAP to develop the new retail ecosystem. The Beijing-based IoT company BOE specialises in monitor, smart system and health services. (36kr)
Beijing-based Deepwise, an AI-powered clinical imaging services provider, raised $17.3 million in a Series A plus round led by Danhua Capital. The startup is working on diagnosis system for early stage detection of breast cancer, prostate cancer and chest radiograph. (36Kr)
World:
Amazon agreed to sell some of its Chinese cloud assets to Beijing Sinnet Technology for as much as $302 million. Sinnet will buy servers and other unspecified operational assets. Amazon said it’s still committed to the Chinese market worth $30 billion. Facing challenge from its local rival Alibaba, Amazon has to deal with laws introduced this year bolstering government control over the movement of information. (Bloomberg)
Snapchat may become a mobile game platform as its shareholder Tencent seeks breakthroughs in mobile game publishing. Planning to bolster its influence in the game industry, Tencent has acquired some leading developers in the industry such as Riot Game and Supercel. (Tech.Huanqiu)