Last Week in Tech: Uber’s version of “hell”, and Flipkart’s US$1.4 billion funding

The dude with a view of both “Heaven” and “Hell”. Photo credit: Adweek.

Jack Ma’s VC firm invests in his own company and Flipkart’s latest round may change India’s ecommerce scene as we know it. When will the Uber scandals end?!

Welcome to Last Week in Tech, where we look back at what happened in the tech and startup ecosystem in the last seven days. We’ve also collated a list of regional events to look forward to in the week ahead for your convenience.

Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments below!

Quick Bites

A snapshot of last weeks’ news in sentences.

What will Uber do next?

And how much can Lyft squeeze out of the drama?

• Remember Uber’s “God View”? Well, they also had a secret software that tracked the location of Lyft’s drivers; codename “Hell”. (Amir Efrati / The Information [Paywall]) (James Vincent / The Verge)
• Riding off Uber’s bad press, Lyft raises $600M at $7.5B valuation. The Uber rival saw a 60 percent week-on-week increase in new user registration following the #DeleteUber campaign. (Darrell Etherington / Techcrunch)
• Amidst waves of scandal, Uber head of comms quits. Her replacement — an ex-Googler with a political communications background. (Kara Swisher / Recode)

Stock market moves

Photo credit: Bloomberg.

• For a moment, Tesla became the most valuable automobile company, overtaking General Motors in market cap for a day. Electric car naysayers have been schooled. (Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal)
• While people are hoping H1B visa restrictions will bring talents home to India, Indian tech billionaires are suffering as tech stocks plummet. (Saritha Rai / Bloomberg)
• Social networking app Migme considers recapitalizing while its stock prices fall. CEO Steven Goh places most of the blame on its listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). (Nadine Freischlad / Tech in Asia)
• Another ASX-listed company, iCandy Interactive, achieves an upgrade. The mobile games company acquires Singapore-based Inzen Studios and makes Inzen co-founder Gerald Tock its COO. (Nadine Freischlad / Tech in Asia)

India gets shiny new stuff

Last week in funding

Must Reads

Upcoming Events