Meituan

China’s OpenAI challenger Zhipu AI gets Meituan funding

Zhipu AI, one of China’s most promising challengers to OpenAI, has received funding from the country’s food delivery giant Meituan, which has a market cap of around $100 billion at the tim

Meituan buys founder’s months-old ‘OpenAI for China’ for $234M

One of China’s most highly anticipated artificial intelligence startups is undergoing a significant change of direction. Guangnian Zhi Wai, or Light Years Beyond, which was founded merely four m

BAI Capital targets China’s globalizing startups with fresh $700M fund

BAI Capital, the storied China-focused venture investment firm that was formerly known as Bertelsmann Asia Investments, has raised $700 million to back Chinese companies that are part of the country&#

Sequoia Capital China raises $9B amid cooling tech sector

Sequoia Capital’s China affiliate has pulled in $9 billion in fresh capital to back the country’s tech companies across all stages, The Information first reported. The raise arrived at a t

Thousands of Mobike users’ passports and IDs exposed online

A massive trove of more than 120,000 passports, drivers licenses and identity documents uploaded by users of bike-sharing service Mobike have been found online. Security researcher Bob Diachenko foun

China’s logistics robot maker VisionNav raises $76M at $500M valuation

Industrial robotics has in recent years become one of the hottest tech sectors in China as the country encourages the use of advanced technology to enhance efficiency on the production floor. VisionNa

Tiger Global is earning its stripes in Africa

You can count on one hand the number of funds bigger than Tiger Global. But in terms of influence, speed and number of investments made since 2021, Tiger has led the pack alongside Sequoia. Last year,

China’s tech firms in limbo amid COVID resurgence, US scrutiny

2022 is not looking any easier to many Chinese tech companies. The slew of new cyberspace regulations introduced over the past year or so, from anti-competition rules to restrictions on the use of alg

COVID rapid tests available on e-commerce in China for the first time

China is allowing the public to take COVID-19 rapid antigen self-tests for the first time as infection numbers hit a two-year high in recent days. Online marketplaces including JD.com and Meituan are

New regulation in China to hit food delivery giants’ profit model

Between 2016 and 2020, the number of people who ordered food online in China doubled to 400 million. The boom was in part thanks to the generous subsidies shelled out by the country’s food deliv

Baidu’s electric car brand Jidu closes $400M Series A round

Once an industry with long development cycles, the automotive space is being upended by China’s tech giants. One can hardly keep up with all the new electric vehicle brands that come out of the

China’s robotaxis charged ahead in 2021

Autonomous driving startups in China are in an arms race to put passengers in their machine-driven vehicles. Every few weeks, news arrives that another major player has got the greenlight to launch a

How Meituan is redefining food delivery in China with drones

On a congested sidewalk next to a busy mall in Shenzhen, a 20-something woman uses a smartphone app to order a milk tea on Meituan, a major food delivery company. In less than 10 minutes, the pearl-wh

Lightspeed China raises $920M for new funds, adds five partners

Lightspeed China Partners, the China-focused vehicle of Lightspeed Venture Partners, said Tuesday it has closed the largest fundraising rounds in its history. The new injection came under three years

The rapidly changing investor calculus on China’s tech giants

As wave after wave of regulatory crackdowns have dominated China tech news in 2021, one can be excused for losing track of what is being regulated, who is doing the regulating and what exactly the reg

Europe’s quick-commerce startups are overhyped: Lessons from China

More than 10 companies currently compete across Europe with an instant grocery delivery business model. Half of them were established in 2020, the year of the pandemic.

This Week in Apps: In-app events hit the App Store, TikTok tries Stories, Apple reveals new child safety plan

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with 

As China shakes up regulations, tech companies suffer

Things in China seem to be changing for the worse, in terms of both future access to foreign capital for Chinese companies and doing business in the country overall.

Equity Monday: China boosts pressure on its tech sector as Duolingo’s IPO looks to raise a few more bucks

Ever wake up to a massive wall of news? That was today, so we had to pick and choose. But since this show is about getting you caught up, we decided to focus on the largest, broadest new information.

China roundup: What’s going on with China’s data security clampdown?

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. A tectonic shift is underwa
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