GrabFood focuses on the Indonesian market and establishes its headquarters in Jakarta; Vietnam venture capital VinaCapital Ventures leads the Ecocombi social networking platform in Vietnam; Ctrip announces the completion of the share swap with Naspers: Sun Jie and other three executives join the MakeMyTrip board

Southeast Asia

GrabFood focuses on developing the Indonesian market: setting up a headquarters in Jakarta, recruiting local staff, and building infrastructure in research and development. According to DealStreetAsia, Grab has said that it will allocate $2 billion to develop Indonesia’s healthcare, electric vehicle and food distribution businesses over the next five years. It is reported that GrabFood ranked first in Grab’s business in Indonesia with a total transaction volume of US$1.46 billion last year. In addition, GrabFood has a relatively strong growth trend in Jakarta and several major cities in Indonesia.

Vietnamese venture capital VinaCapital Ventures led the investment in Vietnam’s social e-commerce platform Ecomobi, the amount of which was not disclosed. According to the English website KrASIA, the investment in this round is also South Korea’s largest search engine Naver. It is reported that Ecomobi was established in 2016 to help brands and e-commerce platforms promote products through social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The company’s customers include well-known e-commerce companies such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee and Bukalapak. In addition, Ecomobi operates in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

Indonesian digital lending platform Kredivo received $20 million in debt financing from venture capital firm Partners for Growth (PFG). According to DealStreetAsia, the financing is PFG’s first transaction in Indonesia and one of its largest deals in the Asia Pacific region. It is reported that Kredivo focuses on the Indonesian market and aims to help consumers who do not have credit cards to use online loans for online shopping. Kredivo’s loan service is available on platforms such as Tokopedia, Shopee, Bukalapak and Lazada.

UK Open Banking Platform Railsbank plans to enter Southeast Asia, Singapore LifeWith its $10 million Series A financing. According to DealStreetAsia, Railsbank is an API-based financial platform designed for developers and product managers. It is reported that Railsbank has set up an office in Singapore.

India

OYO plans to acquire the LPU “dormitories” property in India for $200 million to expand the Indian student housing market. According to ET Tech, OYO is negotiating with LPU to acquire its student residence. It is reported that LPU is one of the largest private universities in the country. Its campus dormitories can currently accommodate 25,000-30000 students. The room types include single rooms, collective dormitories and apartments. The surrounding facilities include indoor stadiums and gyms. According to people familiar with the matter, the total revenue of LPU dormitories exceeds $30 million. If the transaction is completed, OYO will become the largest owner of the student accommodation assets in the country.

Indian takeaway platform Swiggy launched the on-demand errand service “Go”, which competes with Google’s investment in the errand platform Dunzo. According to ET Tech, Swiggy launched the cargo delivery service Swiggy Store in February this year, which is designed to send users to the same city to order any items they order at the store. Swiggy co-founder and CEO said that after Swiggy’s business goals of food delivery and delivery, “Go”, Swiggy’s on-demand errand business will now be launched. This is another service that Swiggy has launched to compete with Dunzo after Swiggy Store’s cargo distribution business.

Saifu leads the $3.3 million Series A financing of Cashflo, India’s supply chain financial platform. According to Livemint, Cashflo will use the funds raised to expand its business and team. It is reported that Cashflo was established in 2017, focusing on the loan business in the SME sector, aiming to provide users with financing solutions to help companies improve profit margins or optimize working capital.

Latin America

Come, a Kenyan-based startup, Picap enters Chile and Guatemala and launches online car services. According to Contxto, it was founded on