Asia news roundup: Carousell unveils payments app, Ofo rejects Didi advances

Photo credit: walkingsky / 123RF

In today’s top stories, Carousell finally gets into digital payments, Didi gets permission to test its autonomous cars in California, and three food-delivery services purge their apps of unsafe vendors.

Ecommerce

Carousell to launch payments app (Singapore). Due to launch next month in Singapore, CarouPay will allow the C2C marketplace’s buyers and sellers to complete transactions in-platform for the first time. Analysts have been critical of Carousell’s the lack of integrated payments, suggesting that the absence of such an option reduces user trust in the platform. Carousell confirmed this week that it raised US$85 million in a series C round co-led by Rakuten Ventures and EDBI. (Tech in Asia)

Nykaa raises US$24.5 million in series D funding (India). The online beauty product marketplace secured the capital from returning investors including Hero Corporate Service chairman Sunil Kant Munjal, the family office of Harsh Mariwala, and private equity veteran Dalip Pathak, among others. The funding round will be used to fuel Nykaa’s brick-and-mortar expansion. The company plans to widen its offline presence from 17 stores to around 55 stores by the end of the 2019 fiscal year. (Inc42)

Transportation

Ofo reportedly rebuffs Didi Chuxing takeover talks (China). The dockless bike-sharing company’s CEO Dai Wei rallied his employees to “fight till the end” after an apparent buyout proposal from the ride-hailing firm. Sources said that Dai spoke to Didi CEO Cheng Wei two weeks ago about the potential offer. Ofo’s main competitor Mobike was acquired by Meituan last month. (South China Morning Post)

Meanwhile, the ride-hailing giant got California’s approval to test driverless cars. Didi has been granted permission by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to road-test its self-driving vehicles. Earlier this year, Uber’s self-drive tests in Arizona were suspended after one of its autonomous cars struck and killed a pedestrian. Last week, a similar incident in Florida involving a self-driving Tesla Model S resulted in two deaths. (CNBC)

Didi’s Beijing headquarters / Photo credit: Didi Chuxing

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies

Regulators step up probe into UPbit (South Korea). The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will help the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit and Financial Services Commission (FSC) in investigating the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Regulators are looking into possible liquidity issues and won’t charge UPbit with criminal or illegal activity, said media reports that quoted insiders. The move comes after FSS created a task force that will zero in on suspicious operations and practices in the cryptocurrency market. (China Money Network)

Delivery and logistics

Gravity gets US$7 million backing (Hong Kong). The logistics startup raised the capital from Wavemaker Partners. Gravity’s software allows businesses to oversee and manage their global end-to-end supply chains in real time. Its product suite includes purchase order management and shipment tracking solutions. Gravity will use the funding for tech development. (Gravity Supply Chain)

Baidu, Meituan, and Ele.me remove thousands of food vendors (China). The food-delivery apps are cracking down on unqualified merchants that violate food safety regulations. After internal investigations, Baidu Waimai banned 4,413 vendors from its app, while Meituan Waimai removed 7,247 and Ele.me dropped 7,926. The Beijing Food and Drug Administration has discovered over 20,000 illegal vendors since a food safety regulation for online services came into effect last January. (TechNode)

Property and real estate

Court orders PropertyGuru to pay 40 percent of 99.co’s legal costs. (Singapore). The ruling came after a copyright infringement lawsuit involving the two rival real estate portals. In 2016, PropertyGuru sued 99.co , claiming to own the rights to content first published on its site that was later re-published by property agents on 99.co. The Singapore Supreme Court dismissed PropertyGuru’s copyright claims in March this year, though it did find that 99.co had partially breached an earlier settlement agreement with its competitor. (99.co)

A Jetstar aircraft carrying 99.co branding as part of a deal between the two companies / Photo credit: 99.co

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