Editor’s note:
The German automaker is expected to manage a Didi fleet of around 100k new cars and two-thirds of the fleet will be Volkswagen cars.
The two companies aim to eventually develop new car models for ride-hailing, according to a spokesperson for Didi.
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:
Singapore: German insurer Allianz’s realty investment arm Allianz Real Estate is actively scouting for logistics deals in the booming consumer economies of China, India and Southeast Asia as it seeks to build a pan-Asia logistics portfolio. (Deal Street Asia)
Indonesia: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering a proposal to extend a loan of up to $320 million to Indonesia’s Bajradaya Sentranusa (BDSN), it said in a recent disclosure. (Deal Street Asia)
Indonesia: The Indonesian e-commerce industry is bracing for some market consolidation following the huge sums of money injected into some of its leading players, according to Jeffrey Yuwono, president of fashion e-commerce company Sale Stock. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: HealthMetrics, a Malaysian startup that assists enterprises to manage their employees’ health benefits, has secured US$1 million in funding from local VC firms RHL Ventures and Cradle Seed Ventures, and Japan-based Spiral Ventures. (e27)
China:
Volkswagen AG, the world’s biggest automaker, is in talks to form a joint venture with China’s Didi Chuxing to manage part of the ride-hailing company’s fleet of cars and help develop “purpose-built” vehicles for Didi’s services. (SCMP)
Didi Chuxing made its first push into the food delivery market nearly a month ago but is already the ride-hailing giant is facing a pushback from its delivery fleet. Didi Waimai’s (Didi Takeaway) deliverymen staged a protest for two consecutive days beginning with April 25thin Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. (Technode)
Smartphone maker Xiaomi is going through a staff reshuffle just as the company is preparing what some believe will be the biggest IPO in 2018. Two out of eight of Xiaomi’s co-founders have left the company, according to an internal letter sent by the company’s CEO Lei Jun published on April 27. (Technode)
Mobike’s founder Hu Weiwei is set to become the new CEO of the company taking the place of Davis Wang. (Technode)
Baidu Inc. has raised more than US$1.9 billion for its newly spun-off financial services division from TPG, Carlyle Group, and other investors, creating one of China’s best-funded fintech companies. (SCMP)
A trade war between the US and China would destroy jobs in America at a time when Chinese consumers are looking to buy goods from the country, according to Alibaba Group vice-chairman and co-founder Joseph Tsai. (SCMP)
A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd’s bid for a preliminary injunction to block the Dubai cryptocurrency firm Alibabacoin Foundation from using the Alibaba name. (Reuters)
Innovent Biologics, a developer of biologically based anti-cancer drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors, has closed a new $150 million funding round as it heads toward an initial public offering (IPO) that could be one of the first under new listing rules being rolled out in Hong Kong. (Caixin)
China’s aviation-to-finance conglomerate HNA Group reported a 22% increase in debt and a widening of the debt-to-assets ratio last year even as the company began selling assets to resolve a cash crunch brought on by years of heavy spending on offshore acquisitions. (Caixin)
China Orient Asset Management, one of the big four Chinese state-owned asset companies tasked with dealing with the country’s bad debt, is planning to raise around RMB100 billion (US$16 billion) to invest in China’s non-performing loans. (China Money Network)
World:
SoftBank will “overachieve” on its commitment to invest $10 billion in 10 years in India “much ahead of time and at a much bigger scale” than it had anticipated, as the Japanese telecom and Internet major has already invested more than $7 billion in past four years, according to CEO Masayoshi Son. (ET)
A unit of the Mumbai-based Allcargo, ECU Worldwide, which aggregates orders from clients, plans to use Uber’s model to make it easier for clients to book marine freight. (Bloomberg)
Bitcoin has jumped 36 percent, the biggest monthly gain since December, when it soared to almost $20,000 before quickly crashing to as low as $5,922 in January. The rally is leaving advocates optimistic. (Bloomberg)
Australia’s corporate watchdog said on Tuesday it was cracking down on “misleading or deceptive conduct” in the marketing and selling of digital tokens via initial coin offerings. (Reuters)
Mexico’s monetary authority asked about a dozen banks to take emergency measures to shore up the country’s electronic payment network after a suspected cyber attack disrupted some transfers last week. (Bloomberg)
Walt Disney Co will create live sports, news and entertainment programming specifically for Twitter Inc’s social network, a move to attract online viewers and advertising revenue through digital video. (Reuters)