In brief: Temasek leads $85m ClassPass round, Yanolja backs Zen Rooms

Zen Rooms co-founders Nathan Boublil (L) and Kiren Tanna (R) / Photo credit: Zen Rooms

ClassPass banks US$85 million from Temasek and others ahead of Singapore launch (Asia Pacific). The New York-based gym booking app said the series D funding will help fuel its international expansion. It plans to enter Asia for the first time in the next few weeks, initially launching in Singapore before heading to other cities in the region. ClassPass offers a membership plan that allows users to book a range of gym and fitness classes, and recently transitioned from a fixed price model to dynamic, credits-based pricing. L Catterton also participated in the round. (ClassPass)

Rocket’s Zen Rooms gets US$15 million investment from Yanolja (South Korea/Singapore). Zen Rooms said that South Korean counterpart Yanolja has acquired a “non-controlling stake,” contradicting an earlier Bloomberg report indicating that the Singapore-based hotel booking app had been taken over. However, Zen Rooms confirmed that, as part of the strategic investment, Yanolja has an option of wholly acquiring it in the future. In March, Tech in Asia reported that Zen Rooms’ main backer Rocket Internet was seeking buyers for the startup, which said it had laid off around 10 percent of its staff as part of an apparent cost-cutting exercise (Zen Rooms)

Other news

Facebook stock plunges on growth concerns after China withdraws local company approval (China/US). The price of shares in the social networking giant dropped by as much as 24 percent after it reported quarterly results, which missed analysts’ predictions on revenue and user growth. This came just hours after authorities in China apparently took back their approval for Facebook to set up a subsidiary in the country, where the US firm is eyeing one of its largest growth opportunities. The withdrawal was reportedly related to a dispute between local government officials and China’s central internet regulator, which felt it had not been properly consulted on the matter. (CNBC)

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