Asia tech news roundup – Nov 16

Marina Bay, Singapore. Photo credit: Pixabay.

There was plenty of talk around cryptocurrencies coming out of Singapore today, while one of China’s manifold bike-sharing platforms appears to have run into a spot of bother.

Cryptocurrencies

MAS issues more guidance on initial coin offering (ICO) regulation (Singapore). The city-state’s central bank said that any digital tokens distributed in ICOs that resemble securities such as shares and bonds will be reviewed under the country’s Securities and Futures Act. (Tech in Asia)

Senior DBS exec says bitcoin is “a bit of a Ponzi scheme” (Singapore). DBS chief information officer David Gledhill also predicted the cryptocurrency will tank in value “because that’s how it will scale.” Gledhill isn’t the first senior financial executive to deride bitcoin; JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (in)famously described it as “a fraud” earlier this year. (CNBC)

Transportation

Photo credit: Bluegogo.

Bluegogo on the brink (China). The bike-sharing platform’s Beijing office sits empty, with many of its senior executives having quit and employees complaining of unpaid wages. The company is said to hold tens of hundreds of dollars in riders’ deposits, and there are now fears among users in China, Australia and the US that they won’t be getting their money back. Bluegogo’s CEO has apparently gone missing. (Tech in Asia)

Volkswagen and partners commit US$12 billion to electric vehicles (China). The German automaker plans to manufacture 40 new electric vehicle (EV) models alongside local partners in China over the next eight years. US rival Ford announced a US$753 million EV project with its partner Anhui Zotye Automobile last week. (Bloomberg)

Robotics

Stormtrooper builder UBTech raising US$400 million in Tencent-led series C (China). The startup builds robots with a consumer entertainment focus, including mechanical versions of Star Wars’ First Order stormtroopers that can recognize human faces and respond to voice commands. (South China Morning Post)

Real estate

RedDoorz guarantees clean linens and washrooms, satellite TV, wifi, mineral water, and toiletries in its rooms. Photo credit: Pixabay.

RedDoorz to spend US$10 million on Indonesia expansion (Singapore). The hotel booking portal said it will invest the capital to expand to nine new cities in the archipelago, as well as scaling up its existing presence there over the next year. RedDoorz, which has raised a total of about US$2 million in disclosed funding according to Tech in Asia data, did not indicate where it is getting the money from. (e27)

Investors, incubators, and accelerators

Sunway iLabs offers US$480,000 to startups (Malaysia). Kuala Lumpur-based Sunway University will invest the money in 10 startups in its iLabs accelerator program. Additional seed capital for the selected startups will come from Google and Nexea Angels. The program is open to Malaysian and foreign proposals. (Sunway University)