Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 5/22/2019

Overseas:

1. A wave of retail earnings reports shows department stores still haven’t figured out how to get shoppers excited

2. Amazon’s Alexa Fund invests in edtech startups Zoobean and Unruly Studios

3. Generation closes $1B growth fund targeting sustainable startups

4. Investors just gave NFX $275 million more to fund seed-stage startups focused on ‘network effects’

5. Payment card startup Marqeta confirms $260M round at close to $2B valuation

6. Freshworks acquires customer success service Natero to give its users with a 360-degree view of their customers

7. Streem Acquires Computer Vision Startup Selerio, Closes Additional Funding

8. People.ai, the predictive sales startup, raises $60M at around $500M valuation

9. Biofourmis raises $35M to develop smarter treatments for chronic diseases

10. As meal-kit melee stretches on, Sun Basket whips up $30M Series E

11. Ravin.ai raises $4M to use computer vision for vehicle damage inspections

12. HolodeckVR raises €3M from Germany’s ProSiebenSat1 to put VR onto dodgems

13. Bringing tech efficiencies to the agribusiness market, Silo harvests $3 million

14. Aaptiv, the workout app, launches a new AI-based personal trainer called Coach

15. AI Watches Television News: A Tweet’s Worth Of Onscreen Text Every Second

16. AI Training Software Might Be The Future Of eSports [Infographic]

17. A Futuristic Reality: Harnessing The Power Of The Three Layers Of Machine Learning

China:

1. Report: 83% of Chinese consumers see security as the most important element of their online experience, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region

2. WeChat Pay and Alipay banned in Nepal by central bank

3. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, plans to launch a free music streaming app

4. Tencent Video’s Growth Slows as It Hits 89-Million User Mark, VP Says

5. Baidu reportedly spinning off autonomous driving unit, part of its AI strategy

6. Takeaway new retail brand zuodashi 佐大狮 raised 100 million from Series A fundraising, covering nearly 30,000 restaurants in 5 months

7. yidaichu 易代储 completed RMB 120 million from its Series B+ financing, to further improve the efficiency of the traditional warehousing industry

8. China’s Wu Capital leads $19m in a Series B fundraising for vocational training business Sanjieka 三节课

Cross-border:

1. Carrefour considers sale of a minority stake in its loss-making business in China

2. Tencent, Pearson funding in UK AI startup Prowler.io puts valuation at $100m

3. Singapore-based healthtech startup Biofourmis banks $35m, to move base to the US

Blockchain:

– Thiel-Backed Crypto Startup Block.one Pays Out 6,567% Return

Emerging Market:

1. IDC: Asia-Pacific spending on AI systems will reach $5.5 billion this year, up 80% from 2018

2. Singapore-based home services app raises $435k seed funding

3. dahmakan raises US$5M to roll out its chef-cooked food delivery in Thailand, Malaysia

Image credit: TechCrunch