Catherine Shu
Catherine Shu is a TechCrunch writer. She started her career in New York City at the Wall Street Journal Online and Barron's Online before moving to Asia. After studying Mandarin Chinese, Catherine put her language skills to the test by covering the design industry, entrepreneurship, and culture in Taiwan's capital for the Taipei Times. Her other journalism experience includes an investigative reporting internship at the Village Voice and numerous freelance writing gigs. Catherine graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She can be reached at shu@techcrunch.com or @catherineshu on Twitter.
Disclosures: None
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Capital Float, An Online Lending Platform For Indian Entrepreneurs, Scoops Up $13M From Sequoia and SAIF
Capital Float, a financial tech startup that wants to make it easier for small businesses in India to get loans, has raised a $13 million Series A led by SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital. Existing investor Aspada also returned for the round. Read More
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SoftBank Will Help IBM’s Watson Learn Japanese
Watson, the IBM-developed artificial intelligence computer system, isn’t content with just being a Jeopardy winner, powering healthcare analytics, or making big data easier to understand. Now the overachiever is also studying Japanese. Read More
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Line Launches $42M Fund To Turn Its Messaging App Into A Lifestyle Platform
Messaging app Line, which aspires to be more than just a communication tool, announced today that it will launch an investment fund to grow its network of services. Called LINE Life Global Gateway, it is worth about 5 billion yen (or $42 million). LINE Corp, the messaging app’s owner, will use it to invest companies that provide online-to-offline (O2O), e-commerce, payment, media… Read More
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India’s FreeCharge, Which Gives Users Coupons When They Pay Bills, Raises $80M Series C
FreeCharge, an India-based mobile commerce platform that gives users coupons and other rewards when they pay their phone, satellite television, and utility bills, has raised an $80 million series C. The round included new investors Valiant Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management, as well as returning investors Sequoia Capital, RuNet, and Sofina. Read More
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Alibaba’s Financial Affiliate Takes 25% Stake In India’s One97, Owner Of Paytm
Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba Group affiliate, announced today that it will take a 25 percent stake in India’s One97 Communications as part of a strategic agreement. Ant Financial runs Alipay, China’s largest online payment service, while One97 oversees Paytm, India’s leading mobile payment platform. Read More
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UK’s BT Agrees To Buy Mobile Carrier EE For $19B
Major consolidation moves are underway in the UK mobile market. As expected, UK carrier BT has agreed to buy mobile carrier EE for £12.5 billion ($19 billion). BT has been talking to EE since November 2014 but only confirmed that it was in talks to buy the mobile carrier, the largest in the UK, in December 2014. EE’s existing shareholders, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, will sell all… Read More
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E-Commerce Sales in China Will Reach $1 Trillion By 2019 Thanks To Mobile, Says Forrester
A new report by Forrester finds that online spending in China will reach one trillion dollars by 2019. The growth will be fueled by mobile apps and improving logistics networks, which have helped e-commerce companies reach new customers in smaller cities. This is good news for Alibaba, which saw its shares fall after its latest earnings report triggered concerns about the impact of its… Read More
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China Now Has 557M Mobile Internet Users, Claims The Government
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a government organization, has released its latest report on Internet usage (link via Google Translate). It claims mobile Internet users reached 557 million as of December 2014, a growth of 11.4 percent from the year before. Read More
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Alibaba And Lending Club Launch Financing Program For U.S. Businesses
Alibaba.com and peer-to-peer financing site Lending Club have inked a strategic partnership designed to get more U.S. businesses to buy inventory from the e-commerce giant’s wholesale marketplace. The two will offer a new financial service called the Alibaba.com e-Credit Line that will let American companies apply for credit lines of $5,000 to $300,000 through the site, which they can… Read More
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Tablet Shipments Fell 12% In Q4 2014, Its First Decline Ever, Says Canalys
As phablets become more popular, consumers are waiting longer to upgrade their tablets or eschewing them altogether. As a result, worldwide tablet shipments plunged 12 percent year-over-year to 67 million units in Q4 2014, which research firm Canalys says marks its first ever decline after several quarters of slowing demand. Read More
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FirstCry.com, A Mumbai-Based Baby Products Store, Nabs $26M In New Funding
FirstCry.com is the latest Indian e-commerce company to scoop up funding. The startup, which is based in Mumbai, announced that it has raised $26 million led by Valiant Capital Partners. Existing investors also returned for the round, which brings the total FirstCry has raised so far to $55 million. India’s e-commerce market is one of the fastest-growing in the world and expected to be… Read More
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Alibaba Launches $129M Foundation For Young Hong Kong Entrepreneurs
Alibaba announced today that it has created a $129 million non-profit organization to help young people who want to start businesses on the e-commerce giant’s online marketplaces. Called the Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation, the group may benefit Alibaba in two ways. For one, it can get more sellers onto Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, its main shopping sites. Read More
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Alibaba’s December Quarter Revenue Falls Below Expectations As It Continues To Invest In Mobile
Alibaba Group’s chief financial officer said during its earnings call today that the e-commerce giant’s focus on mobile will result in some “near-term growing pains” but ensure profitability in the future. The company’s revenue for the quarter ending in December rose 40 percent to $4.22 billion, but still missed the $4.45 billion analysts polled by Thomson Reuters… Read More
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Naver’s Earnings Miss Expectations As Line’s Sales Growth Slows
South Korean Internet giant Naver announced quarterly results that fell short of expectations because of weaker performance from the gaming unit of its messaging app Line. This echoes problems faced by Tencent’s WeChat, one of Line’s main rivals, and shows that messaging apps need to find more sources of revenue beyond games. Read More
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Samsung Reports Lowest Annual Profit In Three Years Due To Lagging Smartphone Sales
Samsung Electronics reported its lowest annual profit since 2011 during its earnings call today as its smartphone sales continue to suffer from increasing competition. In 2014, the company’s profit was 25 trillion won, a 32 percent drop from a high of 36.8 trillion won in 2013. Read More
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AutoBot Raises $6M To Drive Development Of Its Car Diagnostic Tools
AutoBot, a Beijing startup that makes diagnostic tools for cars (not the robots in disguise), has raised a $6 million Series A from Gobi Partners and ABC Capital. The company will use the funding for marketing, hiring and product research and development. AutoBot’s main product is the AutoBot Mini OBD (on-board diagnostic) device, which users can plug into their car’s OBD-II outlet… Read More
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Indian Messaging App Hike Rolls Out Free Voice-Calling Before WhatsApp
Just three weeks after announcing the acquisition of Zip Phone, India-based messaging app Hike has updated its Android app with a voice-calling feature. When Hike bought Y Combinator-backed Zip Phone, which allows users to make Wi-Fi-enabled phone calls, CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal said that it would allow the company to add free voice-calling, one of its most requested features from users, much… Read More
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Data From Alibaba’s E-Commerce Sites Is Now Powering A Credit-Scoring Service
Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial Services has unveiled a new credit-scoring system that uses data from the e-commerce giant’s sites to gauge users’ creditworthiness. Dubbed Sesame Credit, the new service is an example of how Alibaba’s reach in China goes far beyond online shopping. Sesame Credit’s scoring system, which is currently in beta, looks at data gleaned… Read More
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Alibaba Affiliate Ant Credit Launches $80M Financing Program For Female Entrepreneurs In China
Ant Credit, a company affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced today that it will set up a financing program for female entrepreneurs in China with a 500 million RMB ($80 million) loan from International Finance Corp (IFC). The loan program can potentially boost the amount of borrowers who use Ant Financial’s services. Ant Credit provides small online loans and says many of… Read More
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Food Delivery Service Ele.me Raises $350M From Tencent, Sequoia Capital
Ele.me, a food delivery service based in Shanghai, announced this afternoon (link via Google Translate) that it has raised $350 million in Series E funding from CITIC, Tencent, JD.com, Dianping.com, and Sequoia Capital. The investment is notable because Tencent, e-commerce company JD.com, and restaurant review site Dianping.com are closely aligned. Read More
