The dude with a view of both “Heaven” and “Hell”. Photo credit: Adweek.
Jack Ma’s VC firm invests in his own company and Flipkart’s latest round may change India’s ecommerce scene as we know it. When will the Uber scandals end?!
Welcome to Last Week in Tech, where we look back at what happened in the tech and startup ecosystem in the last seven days. We’ve also collated a list of regional events to look forward to in the week ahead for your convenience.
Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments below!
Quick Bites
A snapshot of last weeks’ news in sentences.
What will Uber do next?
And how much can Lyft squeeze out of the drama?
- Remember Uber’s “God View”? Well, they also had a secret software that tracked the location of Lyft’s drivers; codename “Hell”. (Amir Efrati / The Information [Paywall]) (James Vincent / The Verge)
- Riding off Uber’s bad press, Lyft raises $600M at $7.5B valuation. The Uber rival saw a 60 percent week-on-week increase in new user registration following the #DeleteUber campaign. (Darrell Etherington / Techcrunch)
- Amidst waves of scandal, Uber head of comms quits. Her replacement — an ex-Googler with a political communications background. (Kara Swisher / Recode)
Stock market moves
Photo credit: Bloomberg.
- For a moment, Tesla became the most valuable automobile company, overtaking General Motors in market cap for a day. Electric car naysayers have been schooled. (Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal)
- While people are hoping H1B visa restrictions will bring talents home to India, Indian tech billionaires are suffering as tech stocks plummet. (Saritha Rai / Bloomberg)
- Social networking app Migme considers recapitalizing while its stock prices fall. CEO Steven Goh places most of the blame on its listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). (Nadine Freischlad / Tech in Asia)
- Another ASX-listed company, iCandy Interactive, achieves an upgrade. The mobile games company acquires Singapore-based Inzen Studios and makes Inzen co-founder Gerald Tock its COO. (Nadine Freischlad / Tech in Asia)
India gets shiny new stuff
Binny Bansal (left) and Sachin Bansal are the two co-founders of India’s top homegrown ecommerce startup. Photo credit: Flipkart.
- Flipkart raises its biggest round of US$1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft. What does this mean for India’s ecommerce industry? (Malavika Velayanikal / Tech in Asia)
- Google launches a new food delivery and home services app in India, collaborating with local startups UrbanClap, FreshMenu, and Faasos. (Malavika Velayanikal / Tech in Asia)
- Amazon gets the green light to launch their e-wallet in India, strengthening their claim on the market. (Malavika Velayanikal / Tech in Asia)
- eBay officially bows out of India. The company’s India business merges with Flipkart in exchange for equity. (Sumit Chakraberty / Tech in Asia)
Last week in funding
- Rocket Internet’s hotel booking platform Zen Rooms raised US$4.1 million in series A funding from Redbadge Pacific and SBI Investment Korea. (Judith Balea / Tech in Asia)
- Thailand’s answer to Airbnb, Favstay, raised US$2.9 million in funding. The round was led by upscale Thai hotel chain Dusit International. (Steven Millward / Tech in Asia)
- Ninjacart raises US$ 5.6 million to upgrade their supply chain technology to deliver local produce to retailers. (Yuvraj Malik / Deal Street Asia)
- Jack Ma’s VC firm led Alisports’ US$170 million series A round, pumping up its stake in China’s sporting industry. (Sheila Yu / Technode)
Must Reads
A collection of meaningful long-form reads.
Photo credit: Giphy/Buro247.
- The advances in AI reveal a dark secret — that we don’t understand how it actually works. (Will Knight / MIT Technology Review)
- What went on inside the Facebook-Snap war? (Cory Weinberg and Tom Dotan / The Information [Paywall])
“This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.” CEO Kevin Systrom on Instagram Stories.
Upcoming Events
How to build an amazing product team
Thursday, 20 April 2017
7.00PM – 9.00PM SGT
GA Singapore, Spacemob
Join General Assembly and recruitment agency Xpand at a sharing session to discover tips and tricks to building an amazing product team. This session is catered toward hiring managers, company founders, and product managers where they’ll pick up tips from recruitment experts, improve their knowledge of product hiring tactics and connect with others.
#INFINITILAB LIVE: How can corporates actually help startups? with Dave Lim
Thursday, 20 April 2017
6:30PM – 8:30PM SGT
Collision 8
Join the first LAB LIVE in Singapore to hear what Dave Lim has to say on how to achieve integration between corporates and startups to drive innovation. Dave has worked on all sides of the entrepreneurial fence as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur in the Pacific Rim and Silicon Valley. He sits on Danone’s Digital Advisory Board. Since 1996, he has been the founder of Coca-Cola Innovation X, a VC in a $1bil APAC fund that had invested in Alibaba.com, as well as an innovation catalyst for corporates.
Full Stack Foundation Showcase – StackUp
Tuesday, April 18 2017
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM SGT
Bash, 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent
The newest batch of Full Stack Foundation will be demonstrating the products they have been toiling over the past 40 days. Come see the transformation from tech novices to tech entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs as a result of the close guidance and mentorship of the startup-based lecturers and community members.
Also, don’t miss the alumni and community showcases as well, including the under-the-radar e-scooter project by lecturer and alumni combo Pylon City, their alumni’s rising star and app-extraordinaire CutQ, and the company by the pioneer batch of lecturers-Temasys.
This post Last Week in Tech: Uber’s version of “hell”, and Flipkart’s US$1.4 billion funding appeared first on Tech in Asia.