Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 4/30/2019

Overseas:

1. Twitter announces new content deals with Univision, The Wall Street Journal and others

2. Robotic Startup Anki Is Shutting Down After Raising Around $200M

3. FutureLearn takes $65M from Seek Group for 50% stake in UK online degree platform

4. Tray.io hauls in $37 million Series B to keep expanding enterprise automation tool

5. A Cloud Guru raises $33 million for cloud platform classes and labs

6. ManyChat raises $18M to help businesses tap into messaging

7. Pana raises $10 million to help companies arrange travel for onsite interviews

8. ZeroNorth raises $10 million for security and risk management tools

9. PetSmart’s online business, Chewy.com, files to go public

10. Hotel company Marriott plans to launch home-rental market platform that would compete with Airbnb, report says

China:

1. China Gains To 21% of Patent Filings Globally, Right Behind US Leader At 22%

2. HK sees hiring spurt in fintech as new virtual banks snap up talent

3. China’s Tinder, Tantan 探探 removed from app stores amid government crackdown on cyberspace

4. CITIC Capital Partners acquires Hangzhou UCO Cosmetics in carve-out deal

5. Bike-Sharing startup Ofo raised $2.2 billion in just under five years before it crashed

6. Meicai 美菜, Wumart 物美 among shortlisted bidders for Metro’s $1.5b China ops

7. Sneaker trading platform Poizon 毒 valued at 1 billion USD after raising a new round of financing led by Digital Sky Technologies 

8. Alibaba to pay $250 million to settle lawsuit over pre-IPO warning on counterfeiting

9. Gaw Capital backs Series C investment in Tencent Trusted Doctors

10. Taobao testing social e-commerce platform Taoxiaopu 淘小铺

11. How Chinese apps like TikTok are quietly racking up American users

Cross-border:

1. China funds $666 million tech city, highway in Kenya

2. Amazon Pay launches peer-to-peer payments in India

Mobile:

1. Samsung made a vertical TV for watching smartphone videos

Emerging Market:

1. LAVCA annual report on venture investment in Latin America – VC funding into the region nearly doubled in 2018 to a record $1.98 billion compared to $1.14 billion over 2017

2. Singapore’s Temasek Gears Up for More U.S. Deals

3. Jungle Ventures hits $175M first close on its third fund for Southeast Asia

4. Philippine conglomerate Ayala launches $150m VC fund

5. Go-Ventures leads $35m investment in Indian gaming startup

6. GBCI Ventures to invest $10m for projects from its new smart-city solutions platform

7. HR services startup Swingvy bags $7m from Samsung Ventures, others

Cover picture credits to Crunchbase.