Overseas:
1. Fika Ventures raises $76M to fund the growing LA tech ecosystem
2. Amazon is reportedly working on an emotion-tracking Alexa wearable
3. Google integrates food delivery services into Search, Maps and Assistant
5. Shopify quietly acquired Handshake, an e-commerce platform for B2B wholesale purchasing
6. FanDuel partners with fuboTV to bring sports betting data to the live-streaming service
7. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, acquires subscription payment company Prospress
8. Self-driving startup Aurora to buy lidar company Blackmore
9. U.S. smartphone financing tech startup PayJoy raises $20 million
11. Andreessen pours $22M into PlanetScale’s database-as-a-service
12. AmazeVR lands $7m in funding, teams up with LG for content production
13. On-demand delivery startup DoorDash, now valued at $12.6B, shoots for the moon.
14. Zero raises $20 million from NEA and others for a credit card that works like debit
15. AR Startup Streem buys Selerio in effort to boost its AR teleconferencing tech
16. Hunters.ai raises $5.4M for its autonomous threat-hunting solution
17. Beautystack raises £4M seed to help beauty professionals become financially independent
18. UK-based AI company Prowler.io raises $24m from Tencent, RB Capital, others
China:
1. Tencent and Riot Games developing mobile version of League of Legends
2. China’s Meituan Dianping narrows losses, pushes forward grocery retail initiatives
3. Chinese AI firms hunker down as reports indicate they are next on US export hit list
4. Kuai 快手 is preparing a new news product Kuaikandian 快看点, similar to Qutoutiao 趣头条.
Cross-border:
1. Uber brings electric bike service JUMP to London
2. Microsoft pulls Huawei products from Azure Stack cloud server catalogue
3. Chinese drone maker DJI monitors US blacklist as it develops own tech
Emerging Market:
1. Vietnamese Travel accommodation startup Luxstay secures funding from GS Shop & Bon Angels
2. Singapore’s Liquid Group partners JETCO, facilitates cross-border QR payments
3. Genesis Alternative Ventures launches venture debt business targeting Southeast Asia
Image credit: Wheelive