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Apple opens its App Accelerator in India
Apple is investing into the Indian ecosystem by opening its first App Accelerator in Bengaluru. The company announced plans to open this program back in May 2016. Developers who sign up will get support from Apple’s team in India. Apple engineers will provide feedback, best practices and tools. There will also be presentations. Once you’re selected into the program, it looks… Read More
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LeEco’s $2 billion acquisition of Vizio has reportedly ‘stalled’
There are more problems for ambitious Chinese tech firm LeEco. Its acquisition of U.S.-based TV maker Vizio, a surprise deal announced last summer, has run into issues, according to media reports in China. Read More
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Logistics startup Freightos lands $25 million in funding from GE Ventures
Freightos, a startup that wants to digitize more of the international logistics process, announced today that it has raised a $25 million Series B extension round led by GE Ventures, General Electrics’ venture capital arm. Read More
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Google makes its Translate mobile apps available for users in China
Google has reintroduced its Translate mobile apps to China, where they can now be accessed and used without the need for software to bypass local censorship. The U.S. tech giant left China more than seven years ago when it redirected its local search engine to Hong Kong and many of its services are censored in the country. Read More
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Chinese internet giant Tencent buys 5% of Tesla
Tencent, Asia’s second highest valued tech firm, has bought a five percent share in Tesla. According to a filing, the Chinese firm scooped up 8,167,544 shares for around $1.7 billion to become one of Tesla’s largest shareholders. The news itself sent Tesla’s share price up three percent in pre-market trading. The purchase was arranged on March 17, and those… Read More
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Tencent increases its focus on artificial intelligence
When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and Chinese tech companies, thoughts often begin and end with Baidu. But Tencent, Asia’s second highest-valued tech company behind Alibaba, has reminded the world that it too is investing in the field. Search giant Baidu was one of the first to make a major commitment to deep learning. It spent over $2.9 billion on R&D over a 2.5… Read More
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Snapcart raises $3M to track offline commerce data in Southeast Asia
Snapcart, a startup helping to bring transparency to the world of offline commerce in Southeast Asia, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. We first wrote about the company when it launched in September 2015 with the aim of providing data on the largely uncharted world of offline commerce in Southeast Asia, a region of over 600 million consumers and a growing middle class. Read More
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A win for Apple in Beijing as court overturns iPhone patent ruling
Apple has bigger fish frying in the world of intellectual property. But it must be a relief that an IP court in Beijing has handed the smartphone pioneers a win. On Friday, the courts overturned a May 2016 ruling that said Apple had violated design patents of a small, and now defunct, Chinese company called Shenzhen Baili. Read More
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Alibaba gets serious in Southeast Asia in preparation for battle with Amazon
Done betting, Alibaba is getting down to work in Southeast Asia as it bids to lead the region’s promising e-commerce space and maximize its early mover advantage over Amazon. Read More
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SoftBank’s self-driving bus project pulls in $4.6M to push for 2020 commercialization
SoftBank is doubling down on its self-driving bus project in Japan. SB Drive, an entity created last year to develop autonomous vehicle technology for public transport, just got a cash windfall after Yahoo Japan led a 510 million JPY ($4.6 million) investment. Yahoo Japan, the Yahoo affiliate which is one of Japan’s most influential tech companies, provided 490 million JPY ($4.4… Read More
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Singapore’s Carro lands $12M to expand its auto listings business to vehicle financing
Singapore-based auto classifieds Carro has a double whammy of news today — it has moved into the vehicle financing space and raised $12 million more from investors. Carro was founded in late 2015 and it went on to close $5.3 million in seed financing last summer. CEO Aaron Tan, a former investor with Singtel himself, said the lead investor’s identity is not being disclosed for… Read More
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The News Lens raises Series B to challenge Asia’s traditional media companies
The News Lens, an online journalism startup that aims to be the voice of reason in Asia’s raucous media landscape, will focus on creating more original video content after landing a Series B round. The startup hasn’t disclosed the exact amount, but says it is in the range of $2 million to $3 million. Read More
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Amazon delays its entry into Southeast Asia
Amazon has postponed its much-anticipated entry into Southeast Asia. The company initially planned to launch local e-commerce services in Singapore during the first quarter of this year, as we reported in November, but two sources with knowledge of the plans told TechCrunch that the schedule has slipped to “later this year.” Read More
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Alibaba plays politics with new cross-border e-commerce initiative in Malaysia
Alibaba is planting another flagpost in Southeast Asia. Unlike its $1 billion acquisition of Lazada last year, the Chinese giant is making political moves after it announced a joint partnership with Malaysia’s government to facilitate international e-commerce in the country. Often overshadowed by India and China, Southeast Asia’s digital economy is tipped for major growth over… Read More
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Tencent posts $21.9 billion in annual revenue, its highest growth since 2012
Tencent may be more than a decade old but the Chinese internet giant continues to grow at pace after it posted its most significant jump in annual revenue for four years. The firm, best known for China’s dominant messaging app WeChat, announced total revenue of RMB 151.9 billion ($21.9 billion) for its fiscal 2016. That’s up 48 percent year, its biggest leap since 2012, when… Read More
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Apple’s drops AIDS charity branding for its red iPhone in China
iPhone enthusiasts the world over were given a new slab of glass to lust over yesterday after Apple unveiled a red version of the iPhone 7 in its latest move to support HIV/AIDS charity [Red]. The (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition iPhone 7 is the first time that Apple has supported the charity through its flagship phone, — previous (PRODUCT)RED editions have included Beats headphones and… Read More
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Baidu’s chief scientist, who led its AI research, is leaving the company
Chinese internet giant Baidu is losing the head of its data and artificial intelligence (AI) research division. Andrew Ng, the company’s chief scientist, announced his departure today three years after he joined Baidu to oversee its foray into deep learning technology. Ng is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on AI, and he helped start Google’s… Read More
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Airbnb is doubling down on China
Uber may have become the latest in a long line of Western tech firms to have failed in China, but fellow gig economy darling Airbnb is determined to succeed in the Middle Kingdom. Today, the company announced a new brand for its China-based business and the local launch of Trips, its travel services feature. Beyond those launches, the firm pledged to increase its local presence via plans to… Read More
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