FoundersHK, created to strengthen Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem, holds its first demo day

FoundersHK was created to strengthen Hong Kong’s startup community, which has weathered more than two years of political turmoil, along with the COVID-19 pandemic. Today the non-profit, which started as an events and mentoring network, held the first demo day of FoundersHK Accelerate, its equity-free accelerator program, which was created to help prepare Hong Kong […]

Indian edtech giant Byju’s valued at $18 billion in new funding

Byju’s has raised about $300 million as part of a larger round of new investment as the Indian edtech giant focuses on expanding its international business and aggressively explores merger and acquisition opportunities. A filing, supplied to TechCrunch by research firm Tofler, showed that the new investment values the startup at $18 billion, up from […]

Komunidad, a Philippines-based environmental intelligence platform, lands seed round

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with geography that makes it vulnerable to typhoons, floods, volcanos, earthquakes and droughts. While working in IT, Felix Ayque began compiling cyclone reports and sending them as email alerts to communities. His work evolved into environmental intelligence platform Komunidad, which collects data from […]

Jeff Bezos in talks to back Indonesian e-commerce Ula

One-a-half-year-old Indonesian e-commerce startup Ula, which has raised over $30 million and courted many high-profile investors, is inching closer to adding one of the biggest tech profiles to its captable. The Jakarta-headquartered startup — which counts B Capital Group, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Quona Capital among its existing investors — is in […]

China roundup: Tesla supplier CATL to buy Canada’s Millennial Lithium

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. China’s anti-competition tech crackdown continues to redefine the dynamics among the country’s internet giants, leading to collaboration between Alibaba and Tencent in the payments race. In […]

SoftBank-backed Oyo files for $1.16 billion IPO

Oyo is ready to explore the public markets. The eight-year-old Indian budget hotel giant has filed the paperworks (PDF) with the local market regulator for an initial public offering, in which it is seeking to raise about $1.16 billion. The Gurgaon-headquartered startup — which offers an operating system of sorts to help hoteliers accept digital bookings, payments, […]

Tech giants brace for impact in India as new payments rule goes into effect

Apple, Sony, Google, Zoom, PayPal and several other tech companies as well as scores of banks have cautioned customers and partners in India to expect a surge in declined transactions as the world’s second-largest internet market’s central bank enforces a new directive for the way recurring payments are processed in the country. The Reserve Bank […]

South Korean ISP SK Broadband counterclaims against Netflix for bandwidth usage fees

South Korean internet service provider SK Broadband, a subsidiary of South Korean telco company SK Telecom, has filed a counterclaim against Netflix to demand payment for the bandwidth the streaming platform has used for the last three years. This case comes in the wake of the South Korean court siding against Netflix in June in […]

Indian social commerce Meesho raises $570 million at $4.9 billion valuation

Meesho has more than doubled its valuation in less than six months, to $4.9 billion, as a growing number of high-profile investors back the Indian social commerce startup that is reporting strong growth despite the pandemic. The Bangalore-headquartered firm said on Thursday it has raised $570 million in its Series F financing round, following a […]