Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 12/19

Overseas:

1. Ada nets $19 million Series A to grow its customer service chatbot

2. Uber to resume autonomous vehicle testing months after fatal accident

3. Smart security camera maker Lighthouse AI shuts down

4. Here’s Google’s new Street View Trekker backpack

5. Twitter rolls out ‘sparkle button’ to let users hide the algorithmic feed

6. Walmart is testing its own, in-house visual search technology on Hayneedle

7. BMW, Bosch invest in AI processor startup Graphcore

8. Cisco to acquire silicon photonics chip maker Luxtera for $660 million

9. Oath officially becomes Verizon Media Group on January 8

10. After $130M+ in funding, AR startup Blippar collapses

11. Rothy’s just landed $35 million from Goldman Sachs to sell more of its popular ballet flats

12. Levandowski’s Pronto.ai plans to ship automated driving systems for trucks in 2019

13. Ex-Googlers meld humans & machines at new cobotics startup Formant

14. Nuro deploys autonomous delivery cars without safety drivers

15. Bumble now lets you filter potential matches on Bumble Date, Bizz and BFF

16. Skip unveils scooters with cameras and locks

17. SpaceX said to be raising $500M to help fund internet service

18. Seismic scores $100 million Series E investment on $1 billion valuation (Sales Enablement)

China:

1. China orders more than 600 merchants to stop rejecting cash

2. Tesla’s China factory and the missed growth opportunity

3. Huawei: We’re still leading the world on 5G despite political attacks

4. Didi has proposed 27 rectification plans, and shunfengche(顺风车) continues to go offline indefinitely before the rectification of hidden dangers.

5. Meituan to team up with China Starbucks challenger Luckin Coffee on delivery services

6. Yuebao(余额宝) five-year transcript: accumulated earnings of 170 billion, an average of 100 million yuan a day (Chinese Fund Management Firm)

7. JD Express(京东快递) “King Zunda” upgrade personal express

8. Alipay announces the opening of core risk control technology

9. Electric vehicle replacement service provider “ehuandian(e换电)” won the B round of 300 million yuan financing, launching new super battery and mini change cabinet

Cross-border:

U.S.-China VC Deal Flow Rises Despite Trade Tensions

Blockchain:

1. Coinbase lets you convert one cryptocurrency into another

2. Atari teams up with some startup to pretend to make blockchain-based games

Mobile:

The 5G wars have entered the petty stage

Emerging Market:

1. Moglix raises $23M to digitize India’s manufacturing supply chain

2. LinkedIn plans to set up office in Malaysia

3. Ola To Invest $100 Million In Scooter-Sharing Startup Vogo

4.  Vivo to invest $560 million in India for a new smartphone plant, while Pakistan lags behind despite a budding smartphone market

Cover picture credits from TechCrunch