SEA
Grab is in talks with Didi Chuxing, China’s ride-hailing giant, for partnerships in self-driving, Grab President Ming Maa told Chinese local news service 21jingji. (KrASIA)
Singapore’s PatSnap, an IP Analytic and Management platform, has pulled in $38 million in a Series D round led by existing investors Sequoia and Shunwei Capital, with participation from Qualgro. (TechCrunch)
Singapore’s Affable, an influencer marketing platform, has raised a S$1 million ($750,000) in a seed round led by Decacorn Capital. (Deal Street Asia)
Foxconn corporate executive vice-president met Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak to discuss investment in EEC. (Bangkok Post)
EQT Partners, a Swedish investment firm, is looking to control or co-control investments in Greater China and SE Asia. EQT Partners recently closed its latest Asian mid-market fund EQT Mid Market Asia III at $800 million. (Deal Street Asia)
China
Chinese tech giant Tencent just added a shopping search feature on its WeChat search bar, according to Chinese tech media Pingwest, as it’s deepening the tie-up with JD.com. (KrASIA)
Ofo claims its B2B business is doing well and has generated a revenue of over RMB 100 million (USD 15.6 million) so far. At the same time, Ofo said it has turned a profit in over 100 Chinese cities. (KrASIA)
On the 11th of June, Monday, Baidu launched Xiaodu, a new versatile smart speaker, with the capability of playing more than 7,000 music tags that associated with different scenarios or moods. It will be sold for RMB 89 (US$14), at one-third the normal retail price of smart speakers produced by its competitors. (KrASIA)
Huawei’s flagship P20 saw its shipments surge more than 80% in less than three months, as the smartphone maker focus on a better photography experience. (SCMP)
Toutiao’s short video streaming app Tik Tok will improve its privacy settings by adding functions including account deletion, private messaging and parental control by next month. (SCMP)
Uxin, Chinese used car marketplace, has set terms for its US$437 million IPO. The company plans to offer 38 million American depositary shares at a price range between US$10.5 to US$12.5. (CMN)
Regulators in China have removed 46 apps, including the world’s largest news aggregator Toutiao, from app stores for reasons including misuse of users’ information. (PingWest)
Shares in TAL were down more than 8% on Wednesday after Muddy Waters published a report stating that TAL has been deliberately overstating its profits since at least 2016. (FT)
9f Group, a financial services startup, has closed a US$65 million Series D round from industrial funds Famous Group and Plentiful International. (Deal Street Asia)
Cheduoduo, a used-car marketplace, has raised US$17.7 million in a Series A round led by China Growth Capital with participation from Yixin Group, Xingxing Li and Source Code Capital as well as other individual investors. (Deal Street Asia)
Rest of Asia
Samsung NEXT announced Samsung NEXT Q Fund to make the most out of the AI future. The fund will provide Seed and Series A financing to startups solving AI problems, as well as those using AI to solve computer science problems. (Business Wire)
India’s food delivery firm Zomato has invested US$15 million in Bengaluru-based Loyal Hospitality, a platform for restaurants to expand their operations and outlets. (Deal Street Asia)
Bengaluru-based HomeLane, an online home interior solutions provider, has raised US$3.5 million (Rs 24 crores) from Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of the media giant Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. (Deal Street Asia)
World
SoftBank is in talks to invest in WeWork, which would be valued at US$35 billion to US$40 billion. (WSJ)
Shares of PayPal rival Adyen soared almost 90 percent on their first day of trade Wednesday in Amsterdam, marking one of the largest tech IPOs in Europe in recent time. (CNBC)
Twitter claimed it’s making changes in its service to give more space to major event so that people could easily find interesting tweets. (Reuters)
Gadgets
Apple is launching a new app which will allow users to measure anything with iPhone. (CNBC)
Good News Bad News
Apple eyes to enforce new privacy policies on iPhone and iPad apps, revealing loopholes that left users’ data vulnerable to abuse. (WSJ)