Jakarta. Photo credit: Bagus Ghufron.
Today, Grab announced another executive hire as it expands its payments business, while there were funding announcements from a precision medicine company, a cryptocurrency exchange, and a financial data provider.
Artificial intelligence
Line acquires carpooling chatbot (Indonesia). The Japanese messaging app has purchased TemanJalan, which has developed a chatbot that can help university students to find people to carpool with. TemanJalan has already integrated its service with Line’s app in Indonesia, and claimed it experienced 70 times more daily transactions compared to its own app or alternate platforms. (Line)
Xenodata Lab raises US$2.24 million in series A round (Japan). The startup uses natural language processing technology to provide finance data analysis. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Teikoku Databank, and Mizuho Capital were among the participating investors. (DealStreetAsia)
Fintech
GrabPay CTO Vikas Agrawal. Photo credit: Grab.
Grab taps Paytm for CTO of its payments business (Singapore). The ride-hailing company has appointed Vikas Agrawal, former senior vice president of engineering at Indian digital payments firm Paytm, as GrabPay’s chief technology officer. It’s the latest in a string of hires and acquisitions the company has made as it seeks to expand its payments business beyond ride-hailing. (Tech in Asia)
Bitcoin.co.id gets funding (Indonesia). The cryptocurrency exchange operator has received an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including East Ventures. It started out as a media outlet focused on cryptocurrency-related news before moving into trading, and now claims to be Southeast Asia’s largest exchange by user numbers. (East Ventures)
Life sciences
3D Medicines secures US$101 million funding (China). The startup, which develops precision medicines for the treatment of cancer, received investment from China Reform Holdings through the government-linked China State-Owned Assets Venture Investment Fund. ChinaEquity Group was among the other investors. (China Money Network)
Transportation
Photo credit: Go-Jek.
Ojek drivers march to demand protection (Indonesia). Independent motorbike drivers that work with ride-hailing companies like Go-Jek and Grab are holding a demonstration to demand that Indonesian authorities introduce regulations to protect them against alleged mistreatment at the hands of their contractors. (CNN, in Indonesian)
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