Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 5/7/2019

Overseas:

1. The EU will reportedly investigate Apple following anti-competition complaint from Spotify

2. Apple buys a company every few weeks, having acquired 20 to 25 companies in the past six months

3. Microsoft launches a new platform for building autonomous robots

4. Microsoft Word will offer writers all kinds of help with its new AI-power editor

5. Carta, a company focused on private company ownership and related legal complexities, closed a $300 million Series E

6. SendBird snags additional $50M for messaging API tool, as it extends Series B to $102M

7. Health coaching app Noom will expand its product team after raising $58M led by Sequoia

8. Trusted Health raises $20 million to match nurses with temporary, travel, and staff jobs

China:

1. China’s tourism income surged 16% to USD17.5 billion over Labor Day Holiday, with those born in the 1950s spent the most on average per capita at CNY3,629 per trip

2. Video game license approvals plummet in April to only 40 titles, compared with the 170 granted in March

3. 2019 Q1 Top 20 overseas Chinese short video/live application downloads: Tik Tok, LIKE 短视频, HELO, VMATE 2019, 小影

4. Sequoia Capital China to cut 20% of investment staff as tech industry slows

5. Tencent-backed health care giant DXY expands to cosmetic medicine

6. China’s TikTok banks $11m in overseas revenue during Q1 2019, with the US alone contributing 66% of it

7. China’s Luckin Coffee 瑞幸咖啡 seeks to raise up to $510m in US IPO

8. China’s video game live-streaming platform DouYu 斗鱼 to delay $500m IPO amid trade jitters

9. Chinese social e-commerce platform Yunji 云集 raises $121m in US IPO

10. GGV-backed Chinese SaaS startup Black Lake Technologies 黑湖智造 raises $22m in Series B

Cross border:

1. China’s Sogou, Abu Dhabi Media to Launch World’s First Arabic AI News Anchor

2. Alibaba may focus on smaller deals in India after it’s disappointments in some of its large ecommerce investments

3. Californian probiotics developer Evolve Biosystem backed by Li Ka-shing, Bill Gates to launch immunity-boosting gut bacteria

4. Irish Startup Umba Taps Into Africa’s Competitive Mobile Payment Market 

Emerging Market:

1. Grocery startup BigBasket becomes India’s newest unicorn with new $150M investment

2. Thunes raises $10M to make financial services more accessible in emerging markets

3. Indonesian investment app Stockbit raises series A funding

4. Indonesian trucking platform Ritase secures Series A funding

5. Myanmar-based trucking startup raises $800k from Cocoon Capital, others

6. Brunei-based agritech startup Agrome IQ nets six-figure investment in pre-series A round

Image credit: TechCrunch