The weekend readings of the sea people
Editor’s note: The weekly report of the venture capital is a fixed column of the sea (ID: wow36krchuhai), which is a hot spot for the readers of the venture capital circle. We have compiled the Top 5 news, boutique articles and investment and financing events that are most noteworthy this week.
This week’s sea news Top 5
OYO will invest EUR 300 million to expand its European holiday home leasing business. According to ET Tech, the OYO investment plan marks its intention to further penetrate Europe or become a competitor of Airbnb. It is reported that Airbnb is also an investor in OYO and is involved in the latter’s $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion financing. Previously, OYO acquired the vacation rental company @Leisure from German media group Axel Springer and renamed it OYO Vacation Homes. In order to become Europe’s largest vacation rental company, OYO Vacation Homes will continue to invest heavily in resources and manpower .
Singapore shared bicycle company SG Bike took over the Mobility bicycle license or became the largest operator in Singapore. According to The New Paper, SG Bike spent $2.54 million on a Mobike bicycle license in Singapore to operate 25,000 shared bikes. If the transaction is approved by the Land Transport Authority, users are expected to use the SG Bike app to unlock Mobike’s bike by September 13. According to a notice submitted by SG Bike’s major shareholder, ISOTeam, on the Singapore Stock Exchange last Friday, SG Bike has agreed to repay Mortese users’ deposits and advances for a total of $2 million.
Flipkart will launch a free video streaming service. In the future, Flipkart will compete with companies such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hotstar. The difference between Flipkart and Amazon’s video streaming products is that the former is an aggregation platform that aggregates content from different producers, while the latter is a paid model based on a large amount of original and localized content.
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 about 10% of the Indian retail company Future Retail to expand its influence in the Indian physical market. The group is seeking to get about 20 billion rupees from Amazon.The valuation (about $280 million) 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.
Digital payment giant Paytm will launch news and short video services next month. According to ET Tech, Paytm aims to double its monthly active user base to 250 million through new services. Paytm Senior Vice President Deepak Abbot said that Paytm has also entered into deals with smartphone makers such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi to get a market for first-time smartphone users.
Exhibition of high-quality articles
Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet
The first half of the Indian Internet, characterized by hyperlocalization, is like the second half of the domestic Internet, which is looking for opportunities in the “sinking market”. On the other hand, in recent years, more and more Chinese companies have begun to go abroad and find opportunities in overseas markets, which coincides with Going Global’s philosophy.
Tencent’s global investment landscape [Emerging Markets]
Going to the sea hopes to understand the “appetite” of the giants in overseas markets through a new series of reports on “The Global Investment Landscape of Chinese Giants”. This time, we have reviewed the 23 companies that Tencent has invested in emerging markets, which are located in Southeast Asia, India, Africa and Latin America. These four markets are also the most popular destinations in the world.
Investment and financing events
The following are investment and financing events worthy of attention this week:
Southeast Asia
In 2020, WeWork’s investment in Southeast Asia will reach $1 billion. According to DealStreetAsia, PacificCo., which focuses on Southeast Asia and South Korea, was founded by WeWork and Softbank. It is reported that WeWork invested 500 million US dollars in Pacific Co for the first time in 2017, and then injected 300 million US dollars in 2018. Also, according to PacificCo. The terms of the deal agreement, WeWork also need to add an additional $100 million in investments in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Malaysia C2B used car online trading platform Carsome is raising $40 million in Series C financing. According to DealStreetAsia, according to people familiar with the matter, Carsome is raising funds for a valuation of $110 million. But Carsome did not respond to the matter. The Kuala Lumpur-based used car trading platform raised $20 million in the May B round of financing. It is reported that Carsome was founded in 2015 and its core business is to sell cars to individuals and agents through an online bidding platform, and through the platform to promote the entire sale from inspection to payment and other logistics.
Vietnam’s largest cloud POS system KiotViet raised $6 million from Jungle Ventures and Traveloka. According to KrASIA, KiotViet was developed in 2014 by Citigo Software, a SaaS company in Vietnam, which provides inventory management, cash flow, marketing for more than 70,000 micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 63 provinces in Vietnam. Managed solutions. The company said that since its inception, KiotViet has grown at an annual rate of 250%.
India
Social E-Commerce Platform Meesho has completed $125 million in financing from Naspers. This investment includes Facebook, Safran Investment, Sequoia Capital, Shun Capital, RPS and Venture Highway. It is reported that this investment has made Meesho’s valuation reach 600 million US dollars. The company will use the new funds to further establish a technology platform, launch new categories, and go deep into areas outside the major Indian cities that are not covered by the traditional e-commerce market.
India’s local social media platform ShareChat received $100 million in Series D funding. According to the sea report, India’s local social media platform ShareChat announced the completion of the $100 million D round of financing, this round of financing was jointly invested by Twitter and Yuxin Capital, the old shareholders Shun Capital, the United States Lightspeed Venture Capital, India Safari Investment funds, India Quotient, Morningside Capital continued to make additional investments, and the Thai joint venture was the exclusive financial advisor for this round. ShareChat founder and CEO said that there is no clear cooperation plan with Twitter, and more experience sharing.
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.
Shun Capital and other institutions or lead the Indian network about the motorcycle startup Rapido 50 million US dollars, after the investment valuation is 200 million US dollars. According to Livemint, Rapido raised $10 million in January. Rapido was founded in 2015 and currently operates in 13 cities. This is the first time that Shun is investing in areas other than financial technology and content in India. Shun is one of the most active foreign investors in India, focusing on early and growing companies. In addition, Shun’s investment in mobile travel in India will follow its strategy in China.
Naspers will buy a stake in Dream11, the Indian sports gaming platform, for $100 million. According to Livemint, in September last year, Dream11 received a $100 million Series D financing from Tencent. In April of this year, Dream11 completed a $60 million financing led by US hedge fund Steadview Capital, becoming a unicorn with a valuation of about $1.1 billion. It is reported that Dream11 is now seeking a valuation of 2.5 billion US dollars. Founded in 2012, Dream11 offers users cricket, cabadi and football games, and players can win prizes from the reward pool. As of February this year, Dream11 already has about 50 million users.
Latin America
Brazil SaaS developer RD Station raised $50 million in Series D funding led by US private equity fund Riverwood Capital. According to Contxto’s report in Touchpoint Marketing in Mexico, this may be the largest investment ever made by Latin American SaaS startups. Founded in 2011, RD Station is designed to provide strategic digital marketing services to SMEs and now has approximately 13,000 customers in 20 countries around the world.
Africa
Nigeria payment application development company TechAdvance completed $1 million in financing. After the completion of this round of financing, the company’s valuation will reach 20 million US dollars. TechAdvance will leverage new funding to expand its global reach and evolve into a key player in online financial services and payment infrastructure. Founded in 2009, TechAdvance develops and deploys payment technology primarily in emerging markets.
Goldman Stanley led the Nigerian logistics startup Kobo360 with $30 million in financing to boost its expansion in Africa. According to Disrupt Africa, the company raised two rounds of financing last year, totaling $7.2 million. Its business has expanded to Ghana, Kenya and Togo. Founded in 2017, Kobo360 is a digital logistics platform that brings together end-to-end transportation services to help shippers, truck owners and drivers, as well as cargo receivers achieve efficient docking.
文 | 云晞@出海
编 | Zhao Xiaochun@出海
图 | Photos
