Chinaccelerator Daily Digest 6/13/2019

Overseas:

1. London’s LocalGlobe just closed on two funds totaling $295 million

2. Facebook says its YouTube competitor, Facebook Watch, is growing but advertisers want more details

3. Hyundai takes minority stake in self-driving car startup Aurora

4. Bird confirms acquisition of electric scooter and moped startup Scoot

5. Fortnite maker Epic acquires social video app Houseparty

6. KKR leads $300M investment in phishing training company KnowBe4

7. Symphony, a messaging app that’s been a hit with Wall Street, raises $165M at a $1.4B valuation

8. BetterUp raises $103M to fast-track employee learning and development

9. Gary Cohn-Backed Blockchain Startup Raises $23 Million in Project Funds

10. Apollo, a startup that provides developer and operator tools and services, raises $22M for its GraphQL platform

11. Bux raises additional $12.5M as it gears up to launch ‘zero-commission’ investing app

12. Orca Security scores $6.5M seed round to solve cloud native security

13. RealityEngines.AI raises $5.25M seed round to make ML easier for enterprises

14. Funderbeam, the funding and trading platform for private companies, scores $4.5M Series A

15. Simpo raises $4.5M seed to help drive software adoption

16. Stride raises $2.5M from JetBlue, NFX for its guided trips marketplace

17. Using Open Source AI To Map Global Pollution Through Imagery

China:

1. Fuzhou to offer subsidies and cash rewards to blockchain firms, including reducing rent by as much as RMB 600,000 annually for 3 years

2. Binhai New Area 滨海新区 banks on intelligent manufacturing for growth, planning to expand its AI industrial scale to 50 billion yuan by 2020

3. China’s data localization laws hurt cloud security: ACCA report

4. QuestMobile report: Chinese spend nearly 5 hours on entertainment apps daily

5. Alibaba’s Ant Financial and Hellobike team up on $145M e-bike battery JV

6. Huawei is reportedly working on self-driving cars, can be shipped as early as 2021

7. Baidu accelerating automaker deals for car software deployment

8. Chinese insurtech startup Waterdrop 水滴 secures RMB 1 billion in new funding

9. HK’s cross-border e-commerce shipping startup Buyandship raises US$2.2M

Cross-border: 

1. SoftBank funds back Brazilian gym operator Gympass

2. Huawei asks Verizon to pay over $1 billion for over 230 patents: source

3. Google Is Moving More Hardware Production Out of China

4. Go-Jek acquires Indian recruitment platform developer AirCTO

5. US-based collaboration platform Symphony bags $165m to expand into Asia

Emerging Market:

1. India’s Jumbotail raises $12.7 million to digitize convenience stores with its wholesale marketplace

2. Chatbot platform Yellow Messenger raises $4m series A for expansion

Image credit: TeleTrader