And, Thai retailer Central Group and Austrian realtor Signa acquired Swiss retailer Globus for about $ 1 billion; Grab acquired Singapore-based fintech company Bento.

Latest epidemic information

Affected by the epidemic, Samsung and LG temporarily suspended production in China. According to foreign media reports, affected by a new coronavirus-infected pneumonia epidemic, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have decided to suspend some experience store operations and factory production in China until February 9. According to Samsung, due to security considerations, the Samsung flagship experience store (The Bund) will be closed from 2 to 9 this month, and other stores under Samsung will decide separately depending on the development of the epidemic situation in various places. For LG, the LG Chemical Battery Factory and LG Display Module Factory in Nanjing will be shut down from the end of the week to the 9th. LG Chemical’s Beijing, Guangzhou polarizer, and Tianjin auto parts factories have also ceased production. (TechWeb)

India

Vogo, Indian motorcycle rental company, completes $ 25 million in Series C financing. According to TS, this round of financing was led by Matrix Partners and Lightstone Aspada, a local investment fund in India. It is reported that since its establishment in 2016, Vogo has deployed approximately 20,000 electric vehicles in Bangalore, Mysore and Hyderabad, and plans to continue to increase the number of launches this year.

OnePlus is leading the way in high-end smartphones. According to ET, OnePlus will account for 33% of the high-end smartphone market in 2019, with Samsung and Apple trailing behind with 26% and 25% respectively. OnePlus said that the company ’s revenue in the Indian market accounts for one third of its total revenue, and its offline experience centers in India have also played a significant role in the company ’s business growth. It is reported that OnePlus plans to expand the size of the Indian R & D center from 250 employees to 1,000 in the next 2-3 years.

“India Didi” Ola will start operations in London. According to ET, Ola plans to start operations in London on February 10. Since its establishment in 2018, Ola’s operations in the UK market have spread across Birmingham, Coventry and Warwick. To date, Ola has completed more than 3 million trips in the UK and has more than 10,000 drivers. It is reported that the main reason for Ola’s decision to go international is that compared with the Indian market, the international market has higher income and lower costs.

Southeast Asia

Thai retailer Central GRoup and Austrian realtor Signa acquired Swiss retailer Globus for about $ 1 billion. According to DealStreetAsia, Thailand’s Central Group said on Tuesday that it would acquire Swiss luxury department store Globus and other real estate assets in a joint venture with Signa for approximately $ 1 billion, and the transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2020.

Singapore-based unicorn Grab acquires Singapore-based fintech company Bento. According to KrAsia, Grab announced today that it has acquired Bento and renamed it GrabInvest. It will also begin to provide related products for users, drivers and merchant partners in Singapore on the Grab app in the first half of this year. It is reported that the acquisition of Bento will allow Grab to save time and reduce uncertainty in areas such as license application and product opening.

Triawan Munaf, former head of Bekraf, joined the venture capital firm East Ventures in Singapore. According to KrAsia, East Ventures announced today that Triawan Munaf will join the company as a risk advisor to promote and assist Indonesian startups in their development and expansion activities. It is reported that Triawan Munaf has recently been appointed as the President of Indonesian National Airlines in addition to his previous position at Bekraf.

Middle East

Kitopi, a Dubai-based kitchen startup founded two years ago, has completed a Series B financing of US $ 60 million. According to menabytes, this round of funding was led by Knollwood and Lumia Capital. It is reported that Kitopi was established in 2018 and currently operates 30 kitchens in the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries, and has established partnerships with more than 100 restaurants. In the future, the company plans to continue to expand in new and existing markets.

Latin America

Gympass, a Brazilian corporate fitness subscription platform backed by SoftBank, has signed a co-working space agreement with co-working space service company WeWork. According to Contxto, WeWork and Gympass have reached a three-year office space lease agreement that will provide office space for the latter’s 250 employees. It is reported that SoftBank Group is one of the shareholders of Gympass, and encourages the companies it invests to cooperate in order to save the WeWork slump,