CHINA:
1. China’s spending on research and development hits a record $378 billion
2. Mobile phone subscribers in China reached 1.59 billion in 2020
3. ByteDance plans to relocate its Douyin e-commerce unit to Shanghai
5. Pinduoduo Leads Farm-to-Table Movement in China
6. China value retailer Miniso revenues down over 18% in Q4 2020
7. Chinese computing solutions major Iluvatar CoreX bags $186m led by Cedarlake, Centurium Capital
8. VR company Pico raised 242 million RMB in Series B+
9. Surreal AI 诗云科技 raised several million USD in angel round, leveraging AI to create content
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MOBILE-ONLY MARKETS:
1. SOSV names the 7 startups that make up MOX’s 10th cohort
2. Paytm claims top spot in India’s mobile payments market with 1.2B monthly transactions
3. Indian payments firm PhonePe clocks 972m transactions on UPI in February
4. Apple alum’s jobs app for India’s workers Apna raises $12.5 million
5. Indian investment startup Groww in talks to raise up to $125m
6. Istanbul’s Dream Games snaps up $50M and launches its first game, the puzzle-based Royal Match
7. Good Doctor Indonesia launches separate app from JV partnership with Grab
8. InMobi partners with Gojek to offer brand solutions to SEA clients
9. Insurtech firm Alan bagged $54.4m in Temasek-led round
10. Ex-Lazada exec’s edtech startup Manabie bags $3m in funding from Do Ventures, others
12. Advotics secures funding led by East Ventures to expand supply chain solutions for SMEs in Indonesia
CROSS-BORDER:
1. China’s Tencent Cloud to open datacentre in Bahrain
2. Singaporean online retail estate firm PropertyGuru mulls a US IPO through a SPAC merger
3. SoftBank, Line to fold Line Pay into PayPay after merger
4. Reddit’s founder, others pour $17.5m in final close of fund for Pakistani startups
OVERSEAS
1. Marvell to supply chips for Facebook-backed 5G effort
2. SoftBank to write down $1.5 billion Greensill investment
3. SoftBank’s internet business Z Holdings to invest $5 billion to resist overseas tech giants
4. Chicago Ventures raises $63M to back seed-stage startups located anywhere but Silicon Valley
5. Sweden payment unicorn Klarna reaches $31B valuation with new funding
6. South Korea-based ecommerce marketplace Coupang sets IPO price range
7. Cloud Computing Company DigitalOcean Files For IPO Among A Sea Of SPACs
8. Real Estate Brokerage Compass Reveals $270M Loss Despite Rising Revenue
9. Twilio to invest up to $750 million in telecom company Syniverse
10. Instagram launches ‘Live Rooms’ for live broadcasts with up to four creators
11. Motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle maker Polaris to launch its first electric vehicle
12. Mobileye partners with French firms to roll out autonomous shuttles by 2023
13. Martech company Zeta Global raises $222.5M in debt
14. Drone maker Skydio raises $170M
15. Axonius banks $100M for cybersecurity
16. Lime unveils new ebike as part of $50 million investment to expand to more 25 cities
17. Australia-based Employment Hero raises $45M AUD for its global expansion
Image Credits: Entrepreneur