And, the Indian government may levy digital taxes on Google, Facebook, Netflix and other companies; in 2019, Southeast Asian technology start-ups received a total investment of US $ 7.7 billion, a 36% year-on-year decrease.
India
SoftBank has invested about $ 300 million in FirstCry, India’s largest mother-to-child e-commerce company. According to DealStreetAsia, after the investment, SoftBank holds approximately 46.6% of FirstCry shares. In addition, SoftBank Group will add an additional US $ 100 million in one year as a second investment in FirstCry. It is reported that FirstCry will use this funds to continue to expand its online and offline business to compete with its competitors.
The social media giant Facebook’s instant messaging platform WhatsApp has received approval from the Indian government to launch WhatsApp Pay, a digital payment service for the general public. According to KrAsia, WhatsApp has been approved to provide payment services to 10 million users in India. It is reported that WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India, and this approval will make it a strong competitor for Alibaba and SoftBank-backed companies such as Paytm, Google Pay and Amazon Pay to compete in the Indian digital payment market.
The Indian government may impose digital taxes on companies such as Google, Facebook, Netflix. According to Inc42, the Indian government has always had plans to levy digital taxes on companies that use data to drive products and services. This tax plan requires foreign companies to pay a digital tax of 30% -40% of their income generated in India. It is reported that India mentioned the digital tax at the Global Policy Forum of the Global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in France, which is currently being discussed by the OECD.
Waycool Foods, an Indian agricultural distributor, has raised $ 35 million in financing. According to ET, this round of financing was led by Indian venture capital firm Lightbox, with Dutch development financial institution FMO and its existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada participating. It is reported that the company will use the funds to strengthen its technology and infrastructure construction and expand its product range.
Tata AutoComp, a professional Indian auto parts manufacturer, plans to invest 5 billion rupees (about 70.14 million U.S. dollars) to form an electric vehicle division. According to ET, Tata AutoComp is setting up an electric vehicle division and plans to invest Rs 5 crore (approximately $ 70.14 million) to build a new plant and produce electric vehicle parts. It is reported that Tata AutoComp expects that within the next 5 years, the unit will account for a quarter of its overall business and will generate at least $ 300 million in revenue.
OYO, an Indian budget hotel chain startup, has acquired the vacation rental business of the former TUI Group. According to Inc42, the acquisition was completed by Vacation Homes, a vacation rental unit of OYO, in cooperation with German travel aggregation platform E-Domizil, in order to achieve OYO’s expansion in Europe. It is reported that the acquisition has increased OYO’s 17,000 listings.
Southeast Asia
In 2019, the total investment of Southeast Asian technology start-ups was US $ 7.7 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 36%. According to KrAsia, the region received more small-scale investment transactions in 2019 and set a new record of $ 2.4 billion, up from 1.5 billion in 2018. It is reported that Indonesia is still the country with the most investment in the region; Vietnam’s startups have surpassed Singapore for the first time, and financing received accounted for 18% of the region’s total investment, a significant increase from 4% in 2018.
Thailand-based clean energy developer and investor Constant Energy has received a $ 15 million loan from the Swiss Global Climate Partnership Fund (GCPF). According to DealStreetAsia, this loan, , will be used to support the company’s current operations and expand further into Southeast Asia.
Others
Elliott Management, a US hedge fund manager, has accumulated a total of 2.5 billion US dollars in SoftBank. According to DealStreetAsia, Softbank reported a loss of approximately $ 6.5 billion last November, causing its stock price to plummet. Despite this, Elliott Management still sees Softbank’s large portfolio companies as attractive.
文 | 杜俊 @ 出海
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