Overseas:
1. SaaS stocks near record highs as the second half of 2019 Kicks off
2. VC firm Upfront Ventures to raise its third growth-stage investment fund to 250M$
3. E.ventures, the global early-stage venture fund, has raised $400 million more from investors
4. Sony announces a new $185M fund to invest in tech startups
5. Facebook open-sources DLRM, a deep learning recommendation model
6. Walmart’s e-commerce business is reportedly racking up $1 billion in losses and that’s only one issue
7. Deutsche Telekom first to market in Germany with limited 5G rollout
8. App revenue tops $39 billion in first half of 2019, up 15% from first half of last year
9. Klaus, the ‘conversation review’ tool for support teams, picks up $1.9M seed
10. Podimo raises €6M to become Europe’s ‘Netflix for podcasts’
China:
1. Beijing will replace all taxis with electric cars in two years
2. Alipay’s waste-sorting guides hit 1 million users in 3 days
3. Alipay is launching a beauty filter for facial recognition payments
4. Baidu and Geely partner to accelerate AI use in autos
6. Xiaohongshu 小红书, Ele.me饿了么 and NetEase Kaola网易考拉 accused of harvesting user data
Cross-Border:
1. Unicorns need to end costly reliance on promotions, say pricing experts
2. Vivo launches new massive battery smartphone Z1 Pro in India
Emerging Market:
1. e27 partners with Blackstorm Consulting to help tech startups go-to-market in Southeast Asia
2. Logistics SaaS platform GoComet secures US$2.2M Series A funding
3. Indonesian trucking startup Ritase raises $8.5m Series A led by Golden Gate
4. Thai car listing platform SiamCarDeal raises US$300K led by 500 TukTuks
5. Bruneian legacy planning startup Memori raises seed funding from Asian royals
6. Referral proptech platform UrbanAgents secures US$1.5M from FarSight Capital, APAC Realty
Image credits: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay