Asia tech news roundup – Nov 6

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Shenzhen. Tencent’s headquarters is the tallest building. Photo credit: bingfengwu / 123RF.

Major players SoftBank and Tencent dominated Asian tech news today and over the weekend, while ride-hailing service Grab hit a significant milestone.

Ecommerce

Smartkarma, an online marketplace for investment research, scores US$13.5 million funding (Singapore). Sequoia India led the series B round, which will fuel the startup’s expansion into new markets. Existing investors Wavemaker Partners, Jungle Ventures, and Spring Seeds Capital also joined the round. (Bloomberg)

Kaodim secures US$7 million funding (Malaysia). Square Peg Capital and SIG Asia Investments co-led the investment, which the Kuala Lumpur-based online services marketplace will use to expand its business in Southeast Asia and boost its marketing efforts. (Tech in Asia)

Kaodim co-founders Jeffri Cheong (L) and Choong Fui-Yu (R). Photo credit: Kaodim.

Robotics

Tencent makes big investment in GJS Robot (China). The internet giant has injected “tens of millions” of yuan into the startup’s series A round, following its US$41 million investment in US educational robot maker Wonder Workshop last week. GJS builds fighting robots that participate in combat contests. (China Money Network)

Software

The company has also joined OpenStack Foundation (China). Tencent has signed up as a gold-level member of the non-profit, which oversees development and governance of the free and open source cloud computing platform. Cisco, IBM, and Intel are among the other members, while existing Chinese members include China Telecom, Huawei, and ZTE. (TechCrunch)

HCash raises US$40.6 million in ICO (Australia). The startup is developing technology to securely transfer data between different types of blockchain. About US$25.8 million of its digital tokens are now in circulation. (Business Insider)

Hevo gets US$1 million seed investment (India). The data integration platform, founded by the same team that launched food delivery startup Spoonjoy, secured the seed funding in a round led by IDG Ventures India. (VCCircle)

Fintech

Kissht raises US$10 million (India). Chinese conglomerate Fosun International led the investment in the Mumbai-based startup, which works with online and offline merchants to offer credit to their customers at point of sale. (The Economic Times)

Transportation

Grab cars in Singapore. Photo credit: BYD.

Grab hits 1 billion rides across Southeast Asia (Singapore). The customer who made Grab’s 1 billionth ride was a 17-year-old Singapore national swimmer who competed in this year’s Southeast Asian Games, the company said in a statement. (Grab)

Healthcare

Big tech

Investors, accelerators, and incubators