Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 4/12/2019

Overseas:

1. Tinder becomes the top-grossing, non-game app in Q1 2019, ending Netflix’s reign

2. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos challenges rival retailers to raise their minimum wages, too

3. Walmart acquires adtech startup Polymorph Labs to scale up its ad business

4. Apple convinced Foxconn to use clean energy to manufacture iPhones

5. Alphabet Is Uber IPO’s Surprise Winner With Potential $5 Billion Stake

6. Uber spent $457 million on self-driving and flying car R&D last year

7. Insurance startup Lemonade raises $300 million to fuel expansion

8. Armis nabs $65M Series C as IoT security biz grows in leaps and bounds

9. Public health startup Cityblock raises $65M Series B

10. Triplebyte raises $35M for its online coding test and credentialing service for hiring engineers

11. Trint, the AI-powered transcription service, closes $4.5M Series A

12. GuestReady, a service for Airbnb hosts, doubles down on Europe with another acquisition

China:

1. Shanghai Takes on Hong Kong in a Battle for Unicorn IPOs

2. WeWork Labs and Alibaba Cloud join hands to support entrepreneurs grow their businesses both in Greater China and overseas

3. ele.me 饿了么, koubei 口碑 jointly launched the first community-based smart restaurant

4. Didi launches platform for car leasing, fleet management partners

5. China’s largest stock image provider, Visual China Group 视觉中国 shuts website after criticism

6. Chinese healthcare-focused private equity firm Shiyu Capital 拾玉资本 raises $473m for second RMB fund

7. Management buyout of Mobike Europe nearly finalized, sale is expected to be worth $100m

8. Pensees 澎思科技 completed 150 million yuan of A round of financing, will increase AI technology and product development investment

9. Brainwave-tracking startup BrainCo in controversy over tests on Chinese schoolchildren

Cross-border:

1. Space sustainability company Astroscale receives US$30M funding, expands to US

2. Self-driving startup AutoX wins backing from Dongfeng 东风, eyes China market

3. Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) receives US$887K grant from Australian government for gender lens investing

Emerging Market:

1. Grab contributed $3.5b to the Indonesian economy last year: CSIS study

2. Temasek, Enterprise Singapore back new foodtech-focused VC firm

3. Four Indonesian SaaS startups, Talenta, Sleekr, Jurnal, and Klikpajak merge to support SMEs digitisation

4. Indonesia’s Fore Coffee notches strong growth in Q1, adds $1m to series A funding

Cover picture credits to Technical.ly.