Grab, the $16 billion-valued ride-hailing firm that acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia business last year, is in talks with Alibaba’s Ant Financial and PayPal as it considers spinning out of its financial services unit to double down on its non-transportation business, TechCrunch has learned. The seven-year-old company’s coming-of-age moment was a deal to buy Uber’s regional […]
View More Grab is talking to Ant Financial and PayPal about spinning out its financial services businessCategory: Singapore
Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel
Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. We love the reader feedback. Keep it coming. Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Read the first edition here. As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to ensure you see it each week. […]
View More Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheelRazer hooks up with Tencent to focus on mobile gaming
Razer is summoning a big gun as it bids to develop its mobile gaming strategy. The Hong Kong-listed company — which sells laptops, smartphones and gaming peripherals — said today it is working with Tencent on a raft of initiatives related to smartphone-based games. The collaboration will cover hardware, software and services. Some of the […]
View More Razer hooks up with Tencent to focus on mobile gamingSingapore fintech startup Instarem closes $41M Series C for global growth
Singapore’s Instarem, a fintech startup that helps banks and consumers send money overseas at lower cost, has closed a $41 million Series C financing round to go after global expansion opportunities. The four-year-old company announced a first close of $20 million last November, and it has now doubled that tally (and a little extra) thanks […]
View More Singapore fintech startup Instarem closes $41M Series C for global growthGrab launches SME loans and micro-insurance in Southeast Asia
In its latest move beyond ride-hailing, Southeast Asia’s Grab has started to offer financing to SMEs and micro-insurance to its drivers. The launch comes just weeks after Grab raised $1.5 billion from the Vision Fund as part of a larger $5 billion Series H funding round that’ll be used to battle rival Go-Jek, which is […]
View More Grab launches SME loans and micro-insurance in Southeast AsiaShiok Meats takes the cultured meat revolution to the seafood aisle with plans for cultured shrimp
Rising consumer interest in alternative proteins and meat replacements has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to companies trying to grow or replace beef or chicken, but few companies have turned their attention to developing seafood alternatives. Now Shiok Meats is looking to change that. The company has raised pre-seed financing from investors like AIM […]
View More Shiok Meats takes the cultured meat revolution to the seafood aisle with plans for cultured shrimpFormer Dropbox exec Dennis Woodside joins Impossible Foods as its first President
Former Google and Dropbox executive Dennis Woodside has joined the meat replacement developer Impossible Foods as the company’s first President. Woodside, who previously shepherded Dropbox through its initial public offering, is a longtime technology executive who is making his first foray into the food business. The 25-year tech industry veteran most recently served as the […]
View More Former Dropbox exec Dennis Woodside joins Impossible Foods as its first PresidentFacebook won’t store data in countries with human rights violations — except Singapore
As soon as Mark Zuckerberg said in a lengthy 3,225-word blog post to not build datacenters in countries with poor human rights, he had already broken his promise. He chose to ignore Singapore, which the Facebook founder had only months earlier posted about, declaring the microstate home to the company’s first datacenter in Asia to […]
View More Facebook won’t store data in countries with human rights violations — except SingaporeAfter FAA doubles down on 737 decision, Canada grounds the planes amid reports of complaints from U.S. pilots
After the Federal Aviation Administration issued a statement late yesterday doubling down on its decision to keep the Boeing 737 Max planes at the heart of two accident investigations flying, Canada has become the latest nation to ground the plane. “There are — and I hasten to say not conclusive — but there are similarities,” […]
View More After FAA doubles down on 737 decision, Canada grounds the planes amid reports of complaints from U.S. pilotsBoeing is moving to address potential issues in new 737s as Europe bans its plane
In the wake of the second fatal crash in six months involving Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes, the European Aviation and Safety Administration is grounding the planes as Boeing said it was taking additional steps to address an issue that may have contributed to the crash. On Sunday, a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane operated […]
View More Boeing is moving to address potential issues in new 737s as Europe bans its planeBike sharing pioneer Mobike is retreating to China
In a telling sign of the state of bike sharing, Mobike, a once red-hot startup that attracted billions in investment capital, is closing down all international operations and putting its sole focus on China. On Friday, Mobike laid off its operations teams in APAC, which entailed more than 15 full-time employees and many more contractors […]
View More Bike sharing pioneer Mobike is retreating to ChinaThe Khashoggi murder isn’t stopping SoftBank’s Vision Fund
Money talks in the startup community, especially when SoftBank comes knocking with the megabucks of its Vision Fund. Despite the public outcry around the firm’s dependence on money from Saudi Arabia in the wake of that country’s assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, deal flow for Softbank’s Vision Fund appears to be back to […]
View More The Khashoggi murder isn’t stopping SoftBank’s Vision Fund