Wal-Mart says Flipkart has the potential to go public; Thailand’s CP Group acquires Tesco’s Asian business for $ 10 billion.
India
Wal-Mart says Flipkart has the potential to go public. According to Inc42, Walmart CFO Brett Biggs said that in the fourth quarter of fiscal 20, Flipkart led the way E-commerce sales in international markets, and may have an IPO in the future. The US retail giant acquired Flipkart in May of the previous year.
India gaming unicorn Dream11 will raise $ 150-200 million in new funding. According to DealStreetAsia, investors such as the company and well-known PE TPG, a fund founded by James Murdoch, Lupa Systems, and Indian PE ChrysCapital are in final negotiations or will participate in this round of financing. The transaction involves a secondary sale of shares and is expected to bring Dream11’s valuation to $ 2.25 billion.
PhonePe, BharatPe Scout negotiated cooperation with the bank on UPI payment. According to Inc42, affected by the bankruptcy crisis of YES Bank, many UPI-based payment platforms are discussing cooperation projects with banks. PhonePe is negotiating with National Bank of India (SBI) and BharatPe is also trying to work with Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI.
Head of Goldman Sachs Retail Banking campaigns for CEO of HDFC Bank. According to DealStreetAsia, Harit Talwar, head of the Goldman Sachs Group ’s retail banking business, is running for one of India ’s most important banking jobs, the chief of HDFC Bank Ltd., India ’s largest private lending institution. Executive officer to replace Aditya Puri, one of India’s longest-running bank chief executives. Puri’s term ends in October.
Southeast Asia
Thailand CP Group acquires Tesco Asia business for US $ 10 billion. According to DealStreetAsia reports that the company’s filings with the Thai Stock Exchange stated that it had proposed to acquire Tesco Asia Group’s businesses in Malaysia and Thailand for $ 10.58 billion in cash and debt-free. The Thai company said the acquisition would complement its Thai retail business and allow it to enter the Malaysian retail market.
Quona Capital raises a second fintech fund, valued at $ 203 million. According to Tech in Asia, the US VC announced that it has opened financing for its Accion Quona Inclusion Fund to invest in financial technology in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The fund’s past investments in the Southeast include Koinworks, an Indonesian digital SME lending platform, financial startup Julo, and fintech company Ula.
Gojek investor Openspace Ventures launches a third fund worth $ 200 million. According to DealStreetAsia, Singapore-based VC Openspace Ventures said it would raise $ 200 million for the fund and look for Series A and Series B investment projects in Southeast Asia. Openspace Ventures was founded in 2014, manages more than $ 225 million in assets, and has invested in Thai digital wealth management platform Finnomena and Indonesian unicorn Gojek.
Razer has attracted many gamers in the Singapore Digital Bank bid. According to KrASIA, Singapore-based gaming hardware company Razer will form a subsidiary, Razer Youth Bank, to expand digital banking and provide financial services to millennials who are underfunded in Singapore and elsewhere. The company is one of the candidates who are applying for a new digital banking license from Singapore’s Central Bank.
Singapore logistics startup Moovaz has secured a Series A round from VC SCAngels, a subsidiary of YCH Group. According to Tech in Asia, YCH Group, Singapore’s largest domestic supply chain solutions company, announced that its corporate risk division, SCAngels, has made a Series A undisclosed investment in local logistics startup Moovaz. The new funds will be used for product development and transformation.
Singapore Telecom to New Games Joint VentureInject Series A funds . According to Tech in Asia, Singapore Telecom and Thai subsidiary Advanced Info Service (AIS) and South Korea’s SK Telecom announced that they have made a Series A investment in a gaming joint venture to develop new revenue streams related to the game. Neither the amount of the round of financing nor the name of the joint venture was disclosed.
Billboard Indonesia releases an authoritative indicator of the popularity of Indonesian audio podcasts. Today, Billboard Indonesia released a new product on the list-Billboard podcast list. Billboard podcasts are supported by program authority such as Indonesian Recording Association ASIRI, Indonesian Radio Association AMDI and other industry authorities. Combined with Indonesian mainstream network platform program broadcast data, the Billboard list algorithm processes the output. The results of the list will be published weekly by Billboard Indonesia. The contents of the top of the list will be supported by the distribution of television and radio provided by Mahaka Radio Group, MNC Group, Kompas Group.
Grab closed its offices in Thailand and Singapore because of an employee’s new crown virus infection. According to foreign media reports, Grab recently closed offices in Singapore and Thailand for a five-day cleaning. A Singaporean employee who had previously worked in the Bangkok office was found to be infected with the new coronavirus. Grab said in an emailed statement: “An employee of our company’s office in Marina One West Tower, Singapore, was infected with the new coronavirus. The employee tested positive on March 7 and is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.” (Tencent Technology )
Africa
Gmail founder invests in Egyptian grocery transport platform. According to Wee Tracker, the founder of Gmail, Paul Buchheit and the founder of Y Combinator, invested in Paul Graham and the Egyptian fast food delivery platform Breadfast. The exact size of the transaction has not been disclosed, but the investment value is about tens of millions of dollars. The new funding round will boost the company’s expansion plans into North Africa and the rest of the Middle East.
Middle East
Lebanon owes $ 120 million in debt. According to Gulf News, Lebanon said yesterday that it will default on its US $ 1.2 billion of European debt and seek restructuring for the first time as a result of the deepening of the financial crisis and lower foreign exchange reserves.protocol. Debt defaults will mark a new phase of the financial crisis. Since October, the financial crisis has severely damaged Lebanon’s economy and devalued Lebanon’s domestic currency by about 40%.
Cairo financial startup Kazna has raised $ 10 million in seed funding. According to Menabtes, this round of financing was led by Egyptian VC Algebra Ventures and seed fund Accion Venture Lab participated in the investment. The exact amount was not announced. The company aims to provide mobile financial services to Egyptians with insufficient banking infrastructure.
Latin America
Report: 5G will bring $ 300 billion to Latin America. According to LABS, the telecommunications trade agency GSMA released its latest report on the mobile economy in 2019. According to the study, Latin America has performed very well. The industry ’s growth rate was 14% last year. It is expected that by 2023, 5G may bring 300 billion U.S. dollars in investment to Latin America and drive Latin America into the digital society. The survey also pointed out that by 2025, 5G will bring more than 1.1 trillion US dollars of investment globally, and the industry that will receive the biggest gains will be.
The Mexican government taxes digital services in other regions. According to LatamList, the Mexican government will issue a bill the day after tomorrow to impose a 16% value-added tax (VAT) on digital services from other countries or regions. This policy will take effect from June 1 this year and will apply to all online applications, including video and audio streaming, images and digital services for education.
Win Sports sports business in Colombia grows 339%. According to LABS, Columbia Pay TV Sports Network Win Sports ’streaming platform Win Sports Online ’s subscription volume has more than tripled from February 2019 to February 2020. The company did not disclose the exact number of viewers currently using the platform, but the main audience came from traditional cable and satellite pay TV operators.
Olga Ri, Brazil’s cloud kitchen platform, received funding led by Kaszek Ventures. According to LatamList, this round of financing was led by Kaszek Ventures, and Arbor Capital and private angel investors participated in the investment. The specific amount has not been disclosed. This round of financing will be used for market expansion.
Others
South Korea has issued a bill to restrict Tada, a ride-hailing software supported by SoftBank. According to DealStreetAsia, the National Assembly of Korea has passed an amended Passenger Transport Service Law to restrict some vehicle rental restrictions to licensed taxis and prohibit the use of private cars for this purpose. Tada, a taxi-hailing software from Singapore, allows 11-seater private vans to operate its taxi service, which has aroused strong opposition from taxi lobbyists and regulators.
Sony and Samsung’s image sensor business faces new competitors from South Korea. According to Gizmochina, SK Hynix, the world’s second largest memory chip maker, will strengthen its “Black Pearl” CIS (CMOS image sensor) business this year. This means that the South Korean giant will directly replace Sony’s Exmor and Samsung’s ISOCELL image sensor brands in 2020.
文 | Qiu Zehui @ 出海
Picture | Pexels
