Asian tech news roundup – Oct 25

A NuTonomy driverless taxi on the road in Singapore. Photo credit: NuTonomy.

There were some big funding rounds for ecommerce and fintech startups today – while one deep-tech company was snapped up by a particularly high-profile buyer.

Transportation

Delphi buys self-driving startup NuTonomy for US$400 million (Singapore). The US acquirer could dish out a further US$50 million in potential earn-outs. While NuTonomy was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it selected Singapore for piloting its autonomous car tech. It agreed to partner with Grab late last year in order to test out driverless taxis on users of the ride-hailing giant’s app. (TechCrunch)

Grab gets a new CTO (Singapore). Google and Microsoft alumnus Theo Vassilakis will take charge of the ride-hailing company’s research and development (R&D) strategy, as it looks to enhance current offerings and push further into cashless payments. Grab claims it is on track to add around 1,000 new R&D personnel worldwide by the end of next year. (Tech in Asia)

Fintech

ZipLoan raises US$3 million (India). The online lending platform has announced the closing of its series A round, which was led by Matrix Partners and saw the return of existing investors WaterBridge Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, and Sarbvir Singh. The startup said it will use the capital to expand into smaller Indian towns and offer larger loans. (The Times of India)

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Central bank chief says Singapore won’t regulate cryptocurrencies – for now (Singapore). Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said that his agency’s job was more about examining the activity around cryptocurrencies, rather than the assets themselves. But he added that they “are quite often abused for illicit financing purposes… So we do want to have anti-money laundering controls, countering the financing of terrorism controls, in place,” suggesting that some form of regulation may be on the way. (Bloomberg)

Ecommerce

Klook’s co-founders. Photo credit: Klook.

Klook nets US$60 million for series B (Hong Kong). The travel activity-booking platform said it will use the funding – which comes from Goldman Sachs, Matrix Partners, and Sequoia Capital – to expand into the US and European markets. (Tech in Asia)

Furniture marketplace closes US$3.9 million series B round (Australia). This latest investment in Brosa came from previous backer AirTree Ventures, with participation from Bailador Technology Investments and BMY Group. Brosa will spend the money on new hires, as well as rolling out brick-and-mortar showrooms to complement its online platform. (Tech in Asia)

Deep tech

Apple acquires PowerbyProxi (New Zealand). The startup, which develops wireless charging technology for smartphones and licenses it to manufacturers around the world, was founded in 2007 and counts Samsung among its previous investors. The amount Apple paid for the Kiwi company was not disclosed. (The New Zealand Herald)

Investors