Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 2019/11/21

China:

1. China’s EV darlings left stranded as VCs look elsewhere

2. China quantum research team uses AI to crack processing time in supercomputer race

3. Shenzhen requires new ride-hailing vehicles to be fully electric, starting in December

4. Chinese electronics major TCL sets up PE fund to invest 750 million RMB in smart manufacturing

5. Finally, Tencent has its own Tinder – a dating app named Qingliao 轻聊

6. Amid B2B shift, Singles Day is also a showcase for Alibaba’s tech

7. Alibaba raises $11b in biggest Hong Kong listing since 2010

8. Pinduoduo announces Q3 financial results: GMV increased 144% from 344.8 billion from same period last year

9. Tencent unveils audio social app ‘Echo’ 回音 to figure out what Gen Z wants

10. Taiwanese AI-backed cloud service provider CloudMile secures $6m to expand overseas

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Mobile-only Markets:

1. India says law permits agencies to snoop on citizen’s devices

2. PE firm Olympus Capital Asia said to seek $400m for new fund

3. Alibaba-backed TrueMoney wants to be Thailand’s everyday app for financial services

4. Indonesian tech-enabled coffee brand Fore Coffee to add 1,000 locations in Indonesia through Airy tie-up

5. India’s TravelTriangle raises $13m led by KB Global, Fundamentum

6. Indonesian unicorn e-commerce Bukalapak launches credit card application service through partnership with Cermati

7. Israeli startup Vayyar nabs $109M for its ‘4D’ radar tech, which detects and tracks images while preserving privacy

Cross-Border:

1. Singapore online marketplace Carousell merges with 701Search to conquer Southeast Asian online classifieds market

Overseas:

1. Deep tech investment surges across Europe as AI ecosystem expands

2. Anyone can now create maps and stories on Google Earth

3. Google Docs is getting Smart Compose to help G Suite users write faster

4. PayPal to acquire shopping and rewards platform Honey for $4B

5. Circ, the Berlin-based e-scooter company, makes layoffs following ‘operational learnings’

6. Audio company Sonos acquires privacy-conscious AI startup Snips for $37.5 million

7. San Diego-based Founders First Capital Partners gets $100 million for revenue-based fund

8. Data annotation and prep startup CloudFactory raises $65 million to prep and process data sets

9. Vouch raises $45M for business insurance that targets startups

10. Cloud portability firm Gravitational nabs $25M Series A to ease cloud deployment with Kubernetes

11. Starburst, company looking to modernize data analytics with Presto distributed query engine, raises $22M

12. Cheq, startup focused on preventing ad fraud and ensuring that ads run in brand-safe environments, raises another $16M

13. AI training data provider Samasource raises $14.8M for global AI data biz driven from Africa

14. Foodvisor raises $4.5 million for its AI-driven app that helps track what you eat

15. Inhabitr raises $4 million to let you rent furniture

16. Bunch raises $3.85 million for social mobile party app for gamers

17. Chartboost launches Helium, an open source in-app programmatic ad platform

Image Credits: KrAsia

Catch the livestream for Chinaccelerator Batch 16 Demo Day at 2pm on 11/27 (This coming Wed)

Chinaccelerator Batch 16 is in full swing, and nine exciting cross border companies are making their way through our intensive three-month program. They hail from cities such as Shanghai, Paris, Manila, Hong Kong, London, and Kuala Lumpur. They’re breaking new ground in diverse fields—Fintech, Insurtech, SaaS, travel, social commerce, construction, and more—while leveraging deep technology like computer vision.

Giveaway: We will select 3 people to attend this invite-only demo day in person via lucky draw. To participate, sign up for the livestream here: Chinaccelerator Batch 16 Demo Day Livestream (Deadline: 11/25 Monday 12pm)