Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 11/29

Overseas:

1. Qualcomm Ventures is dedicating $100M to AI investments

2. Second Home closing in on new £20M funding round to bring its ‘creative workspace’ to more locations

3. Phiar raises $3 million for an AR navigation app for drivers

4. LearnLux raises $2M from Sound Ventures, Marc Benioff to help employees make financial decisions

5. Transforming customer experiences with the WhatsApp Business API

6. Instagram is using object recognition tech to describe photos for visually impaired users

7. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is bringing the cloud on prem with Outposts

8. Amazon Web Services (AWS) launches Amazon Forecast to make time series predictions easier

9. Facebook must police Today In, its local news digest launching in 400 cities

10. YouTube Originals will become free and ad-supported by 2020

11. Google Fi now officially supports most Android devices and iPhones

12. Australian scheduling software company Deputy brings in $81M amid rapid growth

13. SoftBank’s $21 Billion IPO Reaches Retail Sales Target

China:

1. China’s Didi adds driver training program to counter sharp decline in rides

2. Chinese medical tech platform WuXi AppTec(药明康德) launches $1 billion HK listing

3. With a revenue of 80 million a year, the VR education brand “rainier(润尼尔)” received 20 million yuan of B financing

4. Alipay announced that the number of users worldwide has exceeded 900 million

5. Weibo Stock Up As Quarterly Results Top Estimates

6. Microsoft surpasses Apple to become the world’s largest company by market capitalization

7. Weibo acquires top live streaming platform Yizhibo

8. iQIYI Announces Proposed Offering of US$500 Million Convertible Senior Notes

9. 360 Enterprise Security Group(360企业安全集团) announced that it has completed Pre-B round of financing of 1.25 billion yuan

10. “Tai Di Technology(泰笛科技)” gain more than 30 million US dollars C + round of financing (Home service provider)

Cross-border:

SimbaPay launches Kenya to China payment service via WeChat

Blockchain:

1. Amazon gets into the blockchain with Quantum Ledger Database & Managed Blockchain

2. Bitcoin gains 6 percent as it heads for best day since July

Mobile:

DJI goes pocket size for its latest gimbal

Emerging Market:

1. Skype co-founder snags $105M for fintech lending venture in Southeast Asia

2. Philippines fintech business Voyager raises $215M in Tencent-led round

3. Vehicle-sharing startup Drivezy raises US$20M from Yamaha, Japanese VCs

4. Go-Jek launches beta app in Singapore ahead of entry in early 2019

Cover picture credits from TechCrunch