Asia’s tech news #101: EVs in China, Bezos in Indonesia, blockchain in Singapore…
Asia’s tech, startup and funding news in brief, drawn from South & SE Asia, Australia & NZ, with wider-world items for reference. Get the app
Indonesia: Ula e-commerce enablement firm raises $87M part-backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — techcrunch.com
Bezos’ interest in Ula, which operates a business-to-business e-commerce platform, comes at a time when Amazon has either not entered most Southeast Asian nations — or maintains a limited presence…
Pakistan’s Zarya B2B ecommerce platform raises $1.7M pre-seed — www.menabytes.com
This concept of social selling was pioneered by Meesho in India and has been adapted by different startups from emerging markets, including Brimore and Taager from Egypt. Started in 2015, Meesho has raised over $1 billion in total financing to date…
Australia: Commonwealth Bank to offer platform for retail customers to trade crypto, with NY Gemini Trust — www.reuters.com
Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become the country’s first main-street bank to offer a platform for retail customers to trade cryptocurrencies, breaking industry ranks as it looks to match offerings from rival fintech firms.
China: Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai R&D Innovation Center and Data Center soon to commence operation — autonews.gasgoo.com
The R&D Innovation Center is the American electric vehicle company’s first complete vehicle development center outside the United States and includes software, hardware, material, power and…
ICYMI: Papua New Guinea finance department payment system hit by ransomware in October — www.bloomberg.com
Papua New Guinea’s finance department acknowledged late Thursday that its payment system, which manages access to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid money, was hit…
China: Ministry of Industry & Info Tech to fast-track 1000 battery swap stations for EVs across 11 cities — www.yicaiglobal.com
The initial goal is to build more than 1,000 swap stations to serve owners of more than 100,000 electric vehicles, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology wrote in a statement…
Myanmar: “The army…has tasked thousands of soldiers with conducting…’information combat’” — www.reuters.com
As Myanmar’s military seeks to put down protest on the streets, a parallel battle is playing out on social media, with the junta using fake accounts to denounce opponents and press its message that it…
Blockchain Assoc’n Singapore and China’s AntChain ink MOUs around collaboration, adoption, promotion — www.businesswire.com
Under the partnership, BAS and AntChain will co-organize events and programs in Singapore and China to raise further awareness of blockchain, to drive industry adoption and promote positive…
China: QCraft self-driving mini-bus service in Wuxi, 9-passenger vehicle with a driving charge of 200km — www.youtube.com
QCraft, backed by tech giants Bytedance and Meituan, currently operates a fleet of around 70 self-driving mini-buses in several major cities, including Shenzhen and Wuhan, the largest fleet in China.
Global Cybercrime Report: Which Countries Are Most At Risk? — seon.io
SEON’s comprehensive report of cybercrime around the world in 2021 includes the safest countries for cybersecurity, the countries most at risk, and more.
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