CHINA:
1. Alibaba’s Cainiao Aims to Launch Over 800 Cargo Flights between Hainan and Rest of World
2. Didi Offers Details of Its Income Structure to End Rumors about Excessive Commission
3. Pinduoduo Sees Number of Active Merchants Surge 69% to Record 8.6 Million
4. VIPKid Considers A $500 Million U.S. IPO
5. Sequoia-backed gym chain Supermonkey close to unicorn status post Series E round
6. SoftBank leads $15M round for China’s industrial robot maker Youibot
Check out our latest blog post about “Top 5 Podcasts to Understand How VCs Make Decisions” here
Subscribe to Daily Digest Newsletter here
MOBILE-ONLY MARKETS:
1. Brazilian insurtech 180° brought in $8 million in seed funding
2. Walmart’s Flipkart to cover insurance for all sellers in India and waive additional fees
3. Indonesian telco operator Telkmsel invests $300m more in Gojek
4. East Ventures-backed Indonesian ecommerce firm Sirclo nets $45m in funding round
6. E-grocer Grofers scraps IPO plans, in talks to raise USD 100 million from food tech giant Zomato
7. Global VC firm Learn Capital leads USD 16.5 million round in Bengaluru-based edtech Teachmint
8. Saudi’s Sary raises USD 30.5 million in Series B for B2B e-commerce marketplace
9. Malaysian B2B procurement marketplace Laspasar banks $1.8m from Nexea, others
10. Singapore’s Una Brands raises $40m in one of the region’s largest seed rounds
11. Singapore fintech Validus secures $37.4m from UK firm to boost SME lending
12. Singapore’s ProSpark secures seed funding for its corporate e-learning and training solution
13. Former Carousell, OVO execs launch e-commerce brand aggregator Rainforest with US$36M seed funding
CROSS-BORDER:
1. Tiger Global, Coatue Lead Bitso’s $250M Series C As Company Gains Unicorn Status
2. Tencent-backed online insurance technology firm Waterdrop slumps in NYSE debut
3. Autonomous trucking startup Einride raises $110M ahead of expansion into US
5. Alibaba-backed Chinese cloud startup Qiniu files for $100m listing in the US
6. POPS Worldwide plans to raise US$50M Series D to expand to Philippines
7. India Suspends Imports Of Chinese-made Wi-Fi Devices
OVERSEAS:
1. Discord is rapidly expanding beyond gaming, attracting suitors like Sony and Microsoft
2. Amazon partners with Tile to take on Apple AirTags
3. SpaceX accepts dogecoin as payment to launch lunar mission next year
4. Nikola warns of supply constraints of batteries, chips and touch screens
5. Kahoot, a game-based online learning platform, acquires the edtech portal Clever for up to $500M
6. ReCharge Raises $277M To Plug Into Merchant Subscription Programs
7. Shift Technology secures $220M for insurance SaaS
8. Toronto-based Ada raises $130M for chatbots
9. Sweden’s Einride Raises $110M For Autonomous And Electric Freight
10. Lightmatter closes $80M Series B, to create photonic compute chips specialized for AI
11. Oculii looks to supercharge radar for autonomy with $55M round B
12. Huntress Tracks Down $40M Series B To Secure SMBs
13. Bitski raises $19 million from a16z to become the ‘Shopify for NFTs’
14. Personal skin problems leads founder to launch skincare startup Nøie, raises $12M Series A
15. Spinwheel Banks $11M For Consumer Debt Management Platform
16. ifeel, another well-being platform that blends self-care tools with 1-2-1 therapy, scores $6.6M
17. Robotics Startup ViaBot Sweeps Up $6.1M In Funding
Image Credits: CGTN