Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 3/20/2019

Overseas:

1. Backstage Capital’s $36 million fund is taking longer to raise than expected

2. Instagram launches shopping checkout, charging sellers a fee

3. Salesforce finally embedding Quip into platform, starting with Sales and Service Cloud

4. Angry Birds AR is coming to iPhone this spring

5. Trello Enterprise announces its biggest feature releases since first launched in 2015

6. Founders Fund invests in Tibber, a Norwegian AI to smartly manage energy

7. Beauty company Glossier triples valuation, enters unicorn club with $100M round

8. UK’s Automata raises $7.4M for its lightweight industrial ‘desktop’ robot

9. Alcohol e-commerce startup Thirstie raises $7M to enhance delivery experiences 

10. Investors are rushing to capitalize on apps that help stressed workers meditate and sleep

China:

1. Xiaomi Q4 sees strong growth in overseas shipment and internet services as it tripled its net profit to 1.85 billion yuan

2. China’s GoPro rival Insta360 plans IPO in 2020 after raising fresh round of $30m funding

3. Smart office service provider 小熊U租 completed a 150 million yuan Pre-B round of financing, less than 3 months since its last round of financing 

4. GOMON 光芒 won $5 million in angel financing and is aiming at fashion community for mid to high-end women

5. Chinese Student Receives 10-Year Jail Term for JD.Com Fraud

6. Bytedance forms internal platform to support live-streaming business

7. Xiaohongshu testing WeChat mini-program in e-commerce expansion

8. In bid to up its monetization game, Q&A site Zhihu expands membership program

9. China’s crackdown on internet finance hurts online P2P lender Dianrong 点融

Cross Border:

1. Xiaomi outs Redmi Go, a $65 entry-level smartphone for India

Emerging Market:

1. Golden Gate and Hanwha Asset join forces to plug Southeast Asia’s series B gap

2. Singapore fintech startup Instarem closes $41M Series C for global growth

3. South Africa’s FlexClub raises $1.2M, partners with Uber Mexico

4. Grab launches SME loans and micro-insurance in Southeast Asia

5. Bangladesh’s ride-sharing, bus ticket booking app Shohoz raises funding

Cover picture credits to TechCrunch.