Asia tech news roundup – Dec 13

Zap’s management team. Photo credit: Zap

Investments today ranged from a pre-seed cash injection into a holiday-booking site to a US$90 million mega-round for a Japanese company that wants to fly to the Moon. Here are the day’s top tech headlines.

Marketing and advertising

Zap gets US$550,000 funding for new white-label model (Philippines). Zap started out providing a customer loyalty program that rewarded points which could be used across a range of brand owners. After client feedback the startup shifted to a closed white-label model in 2015, building brand-specific loyalty schemes. Venture Capital Holdings and Kickstart Ventures invested in Zap’s latest funding round, offering a vote of confidence in its pivot and bringing the startup’s total funding to US$1.4 million. (Zap)

Media and entertainment

36Kr Media closes US$45 million series A fundraise (China). Gobi Partners and China Prosperity Capital led the round, with Baidu, Focus Media Information Technology, and Hangzhou Finance Investment Group also participating. Tech news site 36Kr claims it to be the largest investment in a Chinese new media startup to date. (China Money Network)

Candee raises US$21.5 million funding (Japan). Eight Road Ventures led the investment in the livestreaming platform, with Gree Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Opt Ventures, and NTT Docomo also joining in. Candee will use the money to hire more team members, push forward with sales and marketing efforts, and enhance its content offering. (DealStreetAsia)

Aerospace

US$90 million for iSpace to head Moonwards (Japan). The startup is building a lunar rover named Hakuto that it hopes to get into space before the March 31 2018 deadline set by Google’s LunarXPrize competition, in which it is a contestant. Suzuki Motors, Japan Airlines, and the Development Bank of Japan were among the 12 investors that backed the round. (Tech in Asia)

Hakuto lunar rover. Photo credit: iSpace.

Artificial intelligence

Google establishes Beijing AI lab (China). The new research center represents a big investment in China by Google, whose footprint in the country has been limited by the government’s strict censorship rules. (Tech in Asia)

Transportation

Uber picks new country manager (Indonesia). The US ride-hailing company has appointed Monika Rudijono to head its Indonesian business, as competition with regional rivals Go-Jek and Grab intensifies. Rudijono, who currently serves as head of marketing and advertising agency Grey Group, will take up the post next month.  (Reuters)

Go-Jek banned from Jakarta school (Indonesia).  The Jakarta Intercultural School will not allow Go-Jek drivers to deliver lunches ordered by pupils using the company’s app. The school claims that Go-Jek is endangering students’ health and diverting revenue from its on-site canteen by delivering food from third-party restaurants and takeouts. (Bloomberg)

Grab partners with PayTren (Indonesia). PayTren provides a platform for Indonesians to earn supplemental income through selling things like internet and mobile packages and airline tickets. Its app will be integrated with Grab’s Kudo platform, making Grab driver recruitment an additional service available in the PayTren app. (Grab)

Grab and PayTren executives at the signing of their partnership today. Photo credit: Grab

Ecommerce

Health and wellbeing

Investors, incubators, and accelerators