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Grab is messing up the world’s largest mapping community’s data in Southeast Asia
Grab, Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing company, has hit a roadblock in its efforts to improve its mapping and routing service after running into trouble with OpenStreetMap, the world’s largest collaborative mapping community, through a series of blundering edits in Thailand. [Story updated with additional comment from Grab — at the bottom of this post] Grab,…
TNB Aura closes $22.7M fund to bring PE-style investing to Southeast Asia’s startups
TNB Aura, a recent arrival to Southeast Asia’s VC scene, announced today that it has closed a maiden fund at SG$31.1million, or around US$22.65 million, to bring a more private equity-like…
Struggling e-commerce firm LightInTheBox completes $85M deal for Singapore’s Ezbuy
Southeast Asia is a growing digital marketplace and increasingly a focus for startups across the world, but there haven’t been many exits. So it’s notable, then, that struggling Chinese discount…
Neuron Mobility raises $3.7M to bring e-scooters to Southeast Asia’s cities
Despite the rise in electric scooters in the U.S., you’d be forgiven for thinking that Asia — the region where bike-sharing foreshadowed the rise of e-scooters — has been left off…
Malfunction mars the landing for SpaceX’s latest Falcon 9 resupply mission to the ISS
The latest Falcon 9 mission launched successfully, but its reusable booster just missed sticking the landing thanks to a stalled hydraulic pump on the grid fin, according to a tweet…
Topica raises $50M for its online learning services in Southeast Asia
Vietnam’s startup ecosystem is making forward progress. Just a week after 500 Startups’ local entity closed a $14 million fund for early-stage investments, one of the country’s elder statesmen of…
WeChat e-wallet teams up with Line to target Japan’s 7M Chinese tourists
China’s biggest chat app WeChat is set to make its payments service more ubiquitous in Japan, a popular outbound destination for Chinese tourists. On Tuesday, the Tencent-run messenger unveiled a…
Enterprise messaging startup Eko Communications raises $20M for its European expansion
After focusing on Asian markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, Bangkok-based Eko Communications is getting ready to take on Slack, Microsoft Teams and other enterprise messaging apps in Europe. The startup…
Google report: Southeast Asia’s digital economy to triple to $240 billion by 2025
It may sit in the shade of China and India, but tech has real growth potential in Southeast Asia. Home to a cumulative 650 million people, the region’s digital economy…
Sweet Escape connects travelers to photographers for truly Insta-worthy holiday pics
The rise of smartphone cameras and social media in recent years has fuelled a new level of marking and sharing memories using photos, but one startup is betting that people…
Chinese WeWork rival Ucommune raises $200M to go after international growth
China’s Ucommune, the country’s largest rival to WeWork, has been on a busy acquisition spree to build out its domestic business and now it is looking at overseas opportunities after…
Grab lands $50M from Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank to further its fintech push
Southeast Asia ride-hailing firm Grab is continuing to add strategic investors to its ongoing Series H round — which is targeted at more than $3 billion — after it revealed…
Grab pulls in $250M from Hyundai as ongoing round reaches $2.7B
Grab, the Singapore startup that bought Uber’s Southeast Asia business earlier this year, continues to announce strategic investors for its ongoing Series H funding round. The latest edition revealed today…
Korean AI startup Skelter Labs lands strategic investment to expand to Southeast Asia
Korean AI startup Skelter Labs is expanding to Southeast Asia after it pulled in undisclosed funding from Singapore-based VC firm Golden Gate Ventures. Skelter Labs was founded in 2015 by founded…
Chat app Line’s games business raises $110M for growth opportunities
Messaging app firm Line has given up majority control of its Line Games business after it raised outside financing to expand its collection of titles and go after global opportunities.…
KKR’s latest Southeast Asia bet is a $144M investment in PropertyGuru
Global investment giant KKR is warming up to Southeast Asia after it made a third high-profile investment. The firm — which has nearly $150 billion in assets under management —…
Apple picks Thailand for its second retail store in Southeast Asia
Apple continues to increase its efforts in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing market after it picked Thailand as the location for its second Apple Store in the region. A post on Apple’s…
Egypt and Thailand: When the military turns against free speech
You wouldn’t normally mention Egypt and Thailand in the same breath. But both countries underwent military coups within the last five years, and even among the many oppressive regimes in the…
Gogoprint raises $7.7M to expand its online printing business in Asia Pacific
Gogoprint, a startup that is aiming to disrupt the traditional printing industry in Southeast Asia, has pulled in a $7.7 million investment as it prepares to expand its business in…
Go-Jek plans to raise $2B more for Southeast Asia ride-hailing battle
Indonesia’s Go-Jek is planning to raise $2 billion from investors to fuel its ride-hailing battle with Grab in Southeast Asia. Go-Jek raised $1.5 billion earlier this year from investors that…
While United States regulators are still trying to figure out how to think about cryptocurrencies, Thailand’s government is already mapping out its own central bank digital currency. This is just one…
Messaging company Line is continuing to burrow deep into the crypto space after it announced the launch of a $10 million investment fund. The fund will be operated by Line’s…
Three Indonesian tech unicorns unite to back digital insurance startup
It’s almost unheard of to see three unicorns join forces to fund a startup, but that’s exactly what has happened in Indonesia. Ride-hailing company Go-Jek, e-commerce firm Tokopedia and travel…
Grab picks up $2 billion more to fuel growth in post-Uber Southeast Asia
Grab, the ride-hailing service that struck a deal to take Uber out of Southeast Asia, has announced that it has pulled in $2 billion in new capital as it seeks…
Go-Jek kicks off Southeast Asia expansion with Vietnam launch
Go-Jek, the Indonesia-based ride-sharing company valued at $5 billion, has begun its ambitious plan to increase its rivalry with Grab by expanding into three new markets after it opened shop in…
Experian leads $28M investment in Southeast Asia fintech startup C88
Experian is making its first major bet on Southeast Asia and its population of over 650 million consumers after the financial credit giant backed Singapore-based C88 Financial Technologies, which operates financial marketplaces…
Chat app Line gets serious about gaming with its latest acquisition
Line, the company best-known for its popular Asian messaging app, is doubling down on games after it acquired a controlling stake in Korean studio NextFloor for an undisclosed amount. NextFloor,…
Billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted at the weekend to say he was working with cave experts to build a mini submarine out of rocket parts that he thought could help…
Chat app Line to launch crypto exchange in July but it won’t cover US or Japan
Messaging app firm Line has confirmed it will launch a cryptocurrency exchange called BitBox next month. The company said back in January that it planned to enter the crypto space…
Alibaba’s Ant Financial fintech affiliate raises $14 billion to continue its global expansion
Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate connected to Alibaba which operates the Alipay mobile payment service, has confirmed that it has closed a Series C funding round that totals an…
