Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 03/17/2021

CHINA:

1. Baidu raises $3.08 billion from Hong Kong listing

2. Baidu will be charging robotaxi passengers in Cangzhou on a trial basis

3. ByteDance to design AI chips amid China’s tech independence drive

4. Vivo Sub-Brand iQOO Launches Neo5 Gaming Phone with Upgraded Display Performance

5. Tencent-backed housing transaction and services platform Beike shows strong performance for fiscal 2020

6. Tencent pours $429m into Chinese gaming firm Century Huatong Group to increase stake

7. Tencent, GL Ventures co-lead $92.5m Series C round for China’s corporate expense management startup Fenbeitong

8. Office IT infrastructure service provider Edianyun.com closes $77m Series E round

9. Chinese logistics startup Duckbill scores USD 50 million from Temasek, others

10. Agritech firm XAG raises $46m in extended Series C round

Check out our latest podcast about “The Rise of Technification in Southeast Asia, with Peng T. Ong, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures” here

Check out our latest blog post about “Top 5 Podcasts to Understand How VCs Make Decisions” here

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MOBILE-ONLY MARKETS:

1. Middle East start-up Pure Harvest Smart Farms that grows food in the desert raises $60 million in funding

2. AirAsia Group raises $82m from TPG execs, Aimia, others in private share placement

3. Singapore-founded PatSnap snaps up $300M round led by SoftBank, to help R&D departments innovate more quickly and take products to market faster

4. Singapore Economic Development Board’s VC arm invests in Singtel-backed gaming venture Storms

5. SG food ecommerce startup TreeDots raises $1.6m

6. Thailand to launch 5G pilot to create country’s first smart city

7. Beenext-backed Indian fintech startup Yap bags $10m in series B round

8. BRI Ventures-linked fund invests in Indonesian logistics startup Andalin

CROSS-BORDER:

1. Japan messenger app Line let engineers in China access user data without consent

2. China’s BYD hires engineers for Europe EV battery plant

3. Leap raises $17 million to help Indian students study abroad

4. Hong Kong rental solutions firm Dash Living partners with Singapore’s Ascott

5. Line’s parent firm in talks for tie-up with retailer Emart

6. Investible aims to raise US$38M fund targeting early-stage startups in SEA, Australia

7. SG-based Validus’ arm Batumbu secures digital lending licence in Indonesia

OVERSEAS

1. Uber grants UK drivers worker status after losing major labor battle

2. Grand Rounds merges with Doctor On Demand to form multibillion-dollar digital health company

3. Trading platform eToro to go public via SPAC merger in $10B deal

4. SumUp raises $895M in debt to double down on its B2C payments business

5. Online website creation and hosting service provider Squarespace raises $300M at a staggering $10B valuation

6. Cyber insurance startup Coalition raises $175 million at $1.75 billion valuation

7. A digital assets platform Bitpanda raises $170M, becomes unicorn

8. Health Care Network Unite Us Valued At $1.6B Following $150M Series C

9. CapitalG-Backed Strive Health Lands $140M To Develop Kidney Care Technology

10. Socure raises $100M at $1.3B valuation, proving identity verification is hotter than ever

11. Appfire, provider of Atlassian apps, raises $100M to continue its buying spree

12. Overwolf raises $52.5M for its platform to build, distribute and monetize in-game, user-generated content

13. Aiming to become the definitive source for location data, SafeGraph raises $45M

14. Toronto-based fintech company Brim Financial closed on a $25 million Series B round

15. Docker nabs $23M Series B as new developer focus takes shape

16. Israel-based Stor.ai, a digital commerce tool for grocers, announced a $21 million extension to its Series A

17. Instant Food Deliverer Fridge No More Bags $15.4M Series A To Change Grocery Habits

18. Noogata raises $12M seed round for its no-code enterprise AI platform

Image Credits: KrAsia