In Bangladesh, students often rely on after school learning centers for study help or test preparation, but many of the best ones are concentrated in major cities. Edtech startup Shikho was created to make supplementary education more accessible and affordable. The company announced today it has closed a $1.3 million seed round co-led by returning […]
Edtech’s venture-backed globalization pauses at China
Edtech investors are increasingly going global, but regulatory crackdowns in China, which instructed K-12 tutoring startups to go non-profit, have led to a chill among check-writers in the country.
Tencent’s WeChat suspends new user registration in China to comply with ‘relevant laws and regulations’
Tencent’s WeChat said on Tuesday it is temporarily suspending registration of new users in China as it works to comply with “relevant laws and regulations,” the latest Chinese firm to face regulatory scrutiny in the world’s largest internet market. In a social media post, Tencent said it is “upgrading” its security technology to align with […]
Indonesia-based grocery app HappyFresh reaps $65M led by Naver Financial and Gafina
HappyFresh, the on-demand grocery app based in Indonesia, announced today it has raised a $65 million Series D. The round was led by Naver Financial Corporation and Gafina B.V., with participation from STIC, LB and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore. It also included returning investors Mirae-Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund and Z Venture Capital. The […]
India’s ShareChat valued at $2.88 billion in $145 million fundraise
Indian social media platform ShareChat said on Tuesday it has raised an additional $145 million and is now valued at nearly $3 billion, less than three months after it secured $502 million at a valuation of $2.1 billion. Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures led the new tranche of investment while Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund participated in […]
Nium crosses $1B valuation with $200M Riverwood Capital-led round
Nium’s new round adds fuel to a fire shared by a number of companies all going after a global B2B payments market valued at $120 trillion annually.
Amazon-backed Indian D2C beauty brand MyGlamm raises $71 million
MyGlamm, a direct-to-consumer beauty brand in India that sells most of its products through its own website, app and retail touch points, said on Monday it has raised $71.3 million in a financing round as the Mumbai-headquartered firm looks to scale its business across the South Asian market. The startup had raised $23.5 million in […]
Data-driven iteration helped China’s Genki Forest become a $6B beverage giant in 5 years
The bottled beverage industry wasn’t what Genki Forest’s founder, Binsen Tang, initially set out to tackle. The company aims to reach $1.2 billion this year.
China Roundup: Kai-Fu Lee’s first Europe bet, WeRide buys a truck startup
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. Despite the geopolitical headwinds for foreign tech firms to enter China, many companies, especially those that find a dependable partner, are still forging ahead. For this […]
China’s expected edtech clampdown may chill a key startup sector
When it comes to control, the Chinese government doesn’t mind wiping out a few dozen billion dollars in market cap here and there. That’s not a great system.