Overseas:
1. SoftBank Leads $385 Million Bet on Fair, a Subscription-Car Startup
2. Amazon to lower some fees for third-party sellers
3. South Korean food delivery startup Woowa Bros lands $320 million investment
4. Uber resuming self-driving car testing in Pennsylvania
5. IBM Africa and Hello Tractor pilot AI/blockchain agtech platform
6. Spotify settles the $1.6B copyright lawsuit filed by music publisher Wixen
7. French data protection watchdog fines Uber $460,000 for data breach
8. Microsoft issues a rare emergency fix as criminals exploit hole in Internet Explorer
9. Satellite start-up Cloud Constellation raises $100 million to put cloud data storage in space
10. Tobacco giant Altria takes 35% stake in Juul, valuing e-cigarette company at $38 billion
11. Coinbase launches in more markets and plans ‘aggressive’ 2019 expansion
12. Lyft is getting more serious about autonomous vehicle safety with the new hire
13. Lyft announces scooters in San Diego, 1 day after Uber does the same
14. Social game developer Zynga to acquire Small Giant Games, the maker of Empires & Puzzles, for $700M
15. Juul Labs gets $12.8 billion investment from Marlboro maker Altria Group
16. The popular all-women network The Wing just raised another $75M, for a total of $117.5M in two years
China:
1. Tencent shares spike as China watchdog flags video game approvals
2. Tencent joins Naspers in US$1 billion funding for Indian food delivery service Swiggy
3. TikTok is testing long video function.
4. Ofo Founder Blacklisted by Court Amid Debt Woes
5. China’s Biggest Carmaker SAIC Motor Rolls Into Ride-Sharing Market – Xiangdao Chuxing 享道出行
6. Pinduoduo is partnering with GOME Electrical Appliances in terms of logistics.
Blockchain:
Facebook is developing a cryptocurrency for WhatsApp transfers, sources say
Emerging Market:
1. Malaysia’s clinical communication app MedPlanner raises US$240K in equity crowdfunding
2. Indonesia’s online language learning platform Squline secures Series A funding
3. Impact investor Triple P Capital acquires insurance solutions provider Contemi
4. Kazakhstan’s Clockster raises seed funding round, will expand to Southeast Asia
5. Brunei’s legacy planning startup Memori raises US$100K funding
Cover picture credits from Pandaily