And Ola acquires artificial intelligence company Pikup.ai to build future mobile solutions; voice recognition company Uniphore raises $51 million in Series C financing; African mobile payment startup OPay launches tricycle service in the southeastern city of Nigeria, OTrike
Southeast Asia
Kejora-Intervest Fund invests in Indonesian listed company DIVA. According to DealStreetAsia, DIVA went public in October last year and raised $43 million in IDX’s oversubscribed IPO. It is reported that DIVA has launched a device called “DIVA Smart Outlet (OS)” that can support multiple payment methods. The OS can handle a variety of cash and non-cash payments (such as POS machines and other payment methods) and provide ancillary system services. In addition, DIVA also launched an AI-driven integrated information platform “DIVA IIM”, which integrates the messaging of many chat tools such as WhatsApp, LINE, Telegram and Facebook Messenger.
Myanmar Fitness App Flexible Pass Complete multi-million dollar pre-A round of financing. According to TechinAsia, the company will use new funding to provide spa and beauty services. Flexible Pass was established in 2017, and users can purchase Flexible Pass points and book 150 gyms in Yangon online. Currently, the platform offers 20 different fitness options, with 2,500 orders per month and more than 1,000 months of live users. The company said that its number of partners has more than doubled since October 2018.
Vietnamese logistics company ABA Cooltrans raised $6 million in funding. According to DealStreetAsia, the company will use the financing to develop a cold chain logistics solution. ABA Cooltrans was established in 2008 and provides integrated cold chain services primarily in the Vietnamese market. The company currently has nearly 300 refrigerated trucks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with customers including large retailers, meat dairy products and fresh produce suppliers. In 2016, ABA Cooltrans received an investment from Vietnam’s local PE Mekong Capital.
India
Indonesia car service giant Ola acquires artificial intelligence company Pikup.ai to build a future mobile solution. According to ET TEch reports that the Pikup.ai team will join Ola. Located in Bangalore, Pikup.ai is committed to building autonomous driving technology through autonomous technologies such as artificial intelligence, computer vision and sensor fusion. Ola plans to establish a technology center in San Francisco to develop a new generation of mobile technologies, including autonomous driving, electric and connected mobile. The acquisition of Pikup.ai will provide technical support for the program.
Voice recognition company Uniphore raised $51 million in Series C financing led by March Capitall. According to ET Tech, Uniphore has raised $38 million in funding in July this year, with a post-financing valuation of $130 million. Headquartered in Chennai, India, Uniphore specializes in the development of speech recognition technology. Umesh Sachdev, founder and CEO of the company, said the funds raised will be used to develop a dialogue service automation solution to accelerate the globalization of its business, especially in the North American market.
Mumbai robotics and consumer electronics company Emotix completed a $7.5 million Series A round of financing. According to Yourstory, the company received approximately $2 million in funding in the Pre-A round of financing in April 2018. Emotix is a robotics startup that provides artificial intelligence-based companion robot Miko for children’s education and entertainment. The newly raised funds will be used for further research and development in the areas of new products, sentiment and artificial intelligence, as well as expansion in the Middle East, North America and the UK.
Amazon wants to buy a 10% stake in India Retail’s Future Retail. According to Sina Finance, Amazon is in the process of late negotiations to buy up to 10% of India Retail’s Future Retail to expand its influence in the Indian physical market. The group is seeking a valuation of about Rs 20 crore (about 280 million U.S. dollars) from Amazon, which currently operates more than 900 stores in India and has nine supermarket brands including Big Bazaar. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the deal.
India medical technology startup Doxper received approximately $4 million in Series A funding led by Alkemi Venture Partners. According to YourStory, the funds will be used for Doxper’s growth in India, investment in technology and R&D, and development of new products. In April 2018, Doxper received $1.1 million in Pre-A round funding. Doxper is headquartered in MengBuy, its data collection solution, allows doctors to digitize cases immediately. Currently serving nearly 1,600 independent clinics and 20 hospitals.
Africa:
African mobile payment startup OPay launches tricycle service OTrike in Aba, a city in southeastern Nigeria. According to Techpoint.africa, users can spend $0.055 on OTrike to go anywhere in Aba. If you want to get a private charter service, you will need to pay $0.14. Opay began operating a mobile payment platform in 2018 and covered a large number of people without a bank account in Nigeria. Since then, Ofay has also diversified its products, including the motorcycle travel application ORide and the take-away service OFood.
Other:
Alibaba’s AliExpress has partnered with South Korea’s largest search engine, Naver. It is reported that recently, according to Korean media reports, Alibaba’s global cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress (AliExpress.com) and South Korea’s largest search engine Naver have reached a cooperation. Korean consumers can search for AliExpress products directly through Naver Shopping. After clicking on the product link, users will directly jump to the AliExpress website for subsequent purchases. This is the first time Naver has partnered with overseas shopping websites.
