Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 12/12

Overseas:

1. Podcast industry aims to better track listeners through new analytics tech called RAD

2. Bumblebees bearing high-tech backpacks act as a living data collection platform

3. VRgineers looks to set a new gold standard with their $5,800 VR headset

4. Wix launches a new suite of products for support, sales and marketing

5. Dell’s long game is in hybrid and private clouds

6. Facebook relaunches search ads to offset slowing revenue

7. Google launches Istio on GKE

8. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation adds etcd to its open-source stable

9. National Geographic is working with YouTube and DayDream on its latest VR series

10. TechSee nabs $16M for its customer support solution built on computer vision and AR

11. A bug in Microsoft’s login system made it easy to hijack anyone’s Office account

12. Here’s how Lyft envisions self-driving cars communicating with pedestrians

13. Online liquor store Drizly just landed $34.5 million in fresh funding

14. WaveOptics nabs $26M as it sets its sights on lower-cost AR hardware

15. Coffee Meets Bagel goes anti-Tinder with a redesign focused on profiles, conversations

16. InVision, valued at $1.9 billion, picks up $115 million Series F

17. Hardware Club closes its $50 million fund

18. WPP to Cut 3,500 Jobs, Refocus on Creative and Data With No More Agency Mergers

China:

1. WeChat payment “receiving gifts” will be online soon

2. Luckin Coffee completed a US$200 million B-round financing and a valuation of US$2.2 billion

3. A Chinese e-commerce missfresh app(每日一淘) that lures grocery shoppers with cash just raised $100M in Series B

4. Fresh life(鲜生活), good neighbors(好邻居) received $100 million in financing, “downstairs” technology in the middle of the Taiwanese convenience store

Cross-border:

1. Alpha JWC Ventures makes first investment in Vietnam

2. Food delivery app Deliveroo opens its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Hong Kong

3. Mobike prepares to spin off European arm

4. Alipay WeChat is directly serviced in Russia but is being used by non-Russians

Blockchain:

Russia-based Sberbank (SBRCY) Uses Blockchain Technology to Settle Three-Way Repo Deal

Mobile:

1. AppOnboard raises $15 million to let Android users try before they buy apps on Google Play

2. Capture lets you grab real 3D models with your iPhone X’s powerful camera

Emerging Market:

1. Vietnamese SaaS platform Base raises US$1.3M in pre-Series A funding round

2. Hargapedia monitors, tracks and compares grocery prices in Malaysia — both offline and online

3. Singapore’s Osome raises US$2M in seed funding to enter Australia, Hong Kong

4. Thailand’s Gogoprint acquires Prinzio to expand in Indonesia

Cover picture credits from TechNode