Drivezy, India’s vehicle sharing startup, is raising $100M+ at a $400M valuation, eyes US expansion

Drivezy — the startup out of India that wants to turn private car usage on its head through a car-sharing network where people lend their cars and two-wheeled vehicles but also have options to use vehicles from a fleet managed by Drivezy — said it is raising more money as it gears up for the […]

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Korean lending startup PeopleFund raises $11M led by chat app Kakao’s payment unit

South Korean peer-to-peer lending startup PeopleFund is in the money itself after it raised an $11 million Series B funding round that was led by Kakao Pay, the fintech division of Kakao, Korea’s top messaging firm. The deal comes as the country’s P2P marketplace continues to grow with a competitive field of players. A newer arrival […]

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Golden Gate Ventures closes new $100M fund for Southeast Asia

Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures has announced the close of its newest (and third) fund for Southeast Asia at a total of $100 million. The first hit a first close in the summer, as TechCrunch reported at the time, and now it has reached full capacity. Seven-year-old Golden Gate said its LPs include existing backers Singapore […]

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With a $10 million round, Nigeria’s Paga plans global expansion

Jake Bright Contributor Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa. More posts by this contributor African tech leaders Fope Adelowo, Ken Njoroge, Tayo Oviosu to speak at Disrupt SF Offering a white-labeled lending service in emerging markets, Mines raises $13 million Nigerian digital payments […]

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Didi makes more safety changes — and will pause night services while it does

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi has detailed further safety measures incoming to its platform following a second murder of a female passenger last month. The 20-year-old woman had been using Didi’s Hitch carpooling service in Zhejiang, a province in the east of China, during the day. Another female user of the p2p service was murdered in May, after […]

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The dramatic rise and fall of online P2P lending in China

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on TechNode, an editorial partner of TechCrunch based in China. When Emily Zhang was interning with a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm in the Summer of 2016, her main task was to carry out research on other P2P lending firms. She found the rates of return tempting and some underlying […]

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ICOs are becoming funds

What does a startup do with $48 million? $130 million? $1.7 billion? This question – one integral in the whole ICO craze – hasn’t quite been answered yet but it’s going to be far more interesting as ICOs and cryptocurrencies transform from purely product-oriented companies into actual funds. Take the news that the creator of […]

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Not just another decentralized web whitepaper?

Given all the hype and noise swirling around crypto and decentralized network projects, which runs the full gamut from scams and stupidity, to very clever and inspired ideas, the release of yet another whitepaper does not immediately set off an attention klaxon. But this whitepaper — which details a new protocol for achieving consensus within a […]

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Green Power Exchange enables peer-to-peer energy sharing

True friends share everything, from purses to lawnmowers to the limitless energy they pull from the sun, wind, and deep underground. Green Power Exchange aims to make one of those sharing scenarios a bit simpler. Green Power Exchange or GPX is running an ICO to create a coin that lets you trade energy. While there […]

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