Editor’s note:
Last month, Reuter’s source revealed that Go-Jek raised USD 1.5 billion from investors including Google, Temasek, and Tencent at a valuation of around USD 5 billion.
The Indonesian company hasn’t picked up an underwriter for its IPO, according to president Andre Soelistyo.
KrASIA Daily is a five-minute read to brief you everything you need to know to start your day. We only choose the latest tech & startup news that is worth your time, with a focus on Southeast Asia and China.
Southeast Asia:
Indonesia: Go-Jek is considering an initial public offering in Indonesia, president Andre Soelistyo told reporters on Monday, but details on timing and float size haven’t been decided yet. (Reuters)
Singapore: The indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles could soon be a thing of the past, after a new licensing regime for bike-sharing operators comes into effect. The changes were part of the Parking Places (Amendment) Bill tabled in Parliament on Monday (Mar 5). (Channel News Asia)
Indonesia: Oki Ramadhana, who heads Morgan Stanley’s Indonesian operations, will be leaving to join HSBC Holdings Plc in a senior investment banking role in the country, according to people with knowledge of the matter. (Deal Street Asia)
Singapore & Myanmar: Singapore-listed Memories Group Limited, a Myanmar-based tourism company, is acquiring Burma Boating, a luxury yachting business which offers cruising services, for a cash consideration of about K1.3 billion (about $1 million), the company announced on March 5. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: Vietnam’s finance, banking and insurance sector has attracted $1.45 billion from foreign investors in the first two months this year as against $20.2 million in the corresponding period last year, registering a sharp surge, according to the latest announcement from Foreign Investment Agency. (Deal Street Asia)
Vietnam: The World Bank and Vietnam’s trade ministry have jointly launched a $102 million project to support the efforts of industrial enterprises to adopt energy-efficiency technologies and practices. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Axiata Digital Innovation Fund (ADIF), a digital corporate venture capital fund from Malaysia, has invested a sum running into double-digit million in Aerodyne Group that specializes in drone technology. (Deal Street Asia)
Malaysia: Malaysia-focused private equity firm COPE (formerly known as CMS Opus PE) plans to diversify its base of investors or Limited Partners (LP) to foreign institutional investors in addition to the present cohort of local LPs. (Deal Street Asia)
China:
In an effort to lure some of its largest overseas-listed tech giants back to the local capital market, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is exploring to allow foreign-listed tech companies to relist in the country through financial certificates, reports South China Morning Post. (KrASIA)
Alibaba, Jack Ma’s e-commerce conglomerate, has injected RMB 1.77 billion (approx. USD 280 million) in the country’s major bike-sharing startup Ofo through two subsidiaries, according to a report by Chinese media The Paper. (KrASIA)
Pony Ma announced WeChat‘s global monthly active users during the Chinese Spring Festival hit 1 billion. (tech.qq)
China’s Tasly Pharmaceutical Group is planning to list its biopharma unit in Hong Kong to raise about $1 billion, in what is likely to be the largest biotech float in the city this year, people with knowledge of the matter said. (Deal Street Asia)
China’s largest news aggregator Toutiao invests in Shengying Animation, an animation production company. (Sansheng’s WeChat account)
Chinese big data tech company Wecash Technology Co., Ltd on Friday announced that it has raised $160 million in a Series D financing round led by ORIX Asia Capital Ltd and Hong Kong-based property investment and development firm SEA Group. (Deal Street Asia)
Chinese unicorns with maturing core business are eyeing their competitors’ territory for further expansion, as exemplified by Meituan-Dianping’s recent push to ride-hailing. And in what sounds like a response to Meituan’s charge, Didi Chuxing, China’s #1 ride-hailing company, is gearing up for a food delivery pilot in Wuxi city, Jiangsu Province by recruiting local riders. (KrASIA)
Xiaomi could sell smartphones in the U.S. as early as this year, extending the Chinese company’s Western expansion as it plans a highly anticipated initial public offering of stock. (WSJ)
The European Union may beef up a plan to screen foreign investments as China’s pursuit of acquisitions abroad fosters political unease in the bloc, according to a key EU lawmaker. (Deal Street Asia)
China’s three telecommunication carriers are reducing the cost for the use of the Internet on mobile by over 30%. (36Kr)
Alibaba ex-executive LEI Yanqun takes office at auto trading platform Chehaoduo as COO. (36Kr)
China’s answer to Quora, Zhihu, tightened regulation on its content by adding features that allow the website to review and delete users’ answers, after the app being removed from App Stores on March 2. (tech.sina)
NetEase founder DING Lei said the e-commerce unit of the company, Yanxuan, is branching out to offline retail by opening stores by the first half of this year. (Egsea)
AI is a threat to privacy—this is how 76.3% of Chinese people feel about artificial intelligence technology according to a survey of 8,000 participants carried out by CCTV and Tencent Research. (Technode)
World:
Online grocer BigBasketis testing the waters to go beyond its online-only model following an investment by Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba. The Bengaluru-based company is looking to supplement its core online business with offline kiosks that will stock daily groceries, fast-moving consumer goods, fruits, and vegetables. (The Times of India)
Amazon.com Inc. is in talks with big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. about building a checking-account-like product the online retailer could offer its customers, according to people familiar with the matter. (WSJ)
Kakao Corp, South Korea’s largest messaging app operator, said on Monday it is planning to establish a unit focusing on blockchain technology. (Reuters)
Lyft partners with electronic health records company Allscripts to let hospitals and doctors’ offices schedule rides for patients through LyftConcierge. (Techmeme)
Netflix announced that it is updating its parental controls to create more detailed protection for young viewers. The service is also adding clearer maturity level rating labels to its content. (9to5Mac)
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Monday filed a lawsuit against Uber after the San Francisco-based ride-sharing company took more than 12 months to inform users that it suffered a major hack. (CNET)
The U.S. government ordered Qualcomm Inc. to delay its shareholder meeting this week to provide it more time to review rival Broadcom Ltd.’s proposed $117 billion takeover of the chip maker. (WSJ)
Waze’s carpooling app for commuters is relaunching with a number of new features designed to make it easier and safer to use. The company says it will now allow people to choose their shared rides, instead of being matched blindly. (TechCrunch)