Thailand SEC files criminal complaint against crypto exchange Binance; The complaint says Binance operates digital asset biz without a licence; Britain’s financial watchdog had last week barred Binance from carrying out regulated activities in the country.
Singapore flags Binance worries; The MAS says it is aware of the regulatory scrutiny that Binance is facing elsewhere and that it is following up as required with a local unit; MAS said it is following up with Binance Asia Services, a local entity, as part of standard processes to review applications for a license to provide digital payment token services in the city-state.
Tiki said to have secured US$100M in first Series E tranche led by a global strategic investor; DealStreetAsia has earlier reported the Vietnamese e-commerce major was planning to raise up to US$200M in its latest round; Tiki was most recently valued at around US$600M when it raised US$43M for the sale of corporate bonds between March and June.
Startup valuations see a correction in Vietnam amid COVID-19 crisis; The markdown in valuation has particularly gripped sectors such as travel, hospitality, and transportation that have been the worst affected by the pandemic; In new-economy sectors like fintech, education, healthtech, and logistics, however, the changes in valuations are not all that visible.
‘US startups practise a global mindset that drives them for exponential growth from day one’: US Embassy Singapore’s Digital Trade Attaché; This is supported by access to funding but is also supported by other driving factors like risk tolerance, and an open and collaborative mindset, where there is a flow of information and ideas, says Christian Koschil.
iPhone co-inventor joins SG insurtech startup bolttech’s US$180M Series A; This takes the one-year-old company to unicorn club; bolttech works with insurers, telcos, retailers, banks, e-commerce and digital destinations to embed insurance into their customer journeys at the point of need; It claims it transacts US$5B in premiums on its platform, providing a gateway to more than 5K products and 150 insurance providers.
Workmate raises US$10M from Lendable to help businesses find, manage quality blue-collar workers; The startup has raised a total of US$15.2M so far from a slew of investors, including Atlas Ventures, Gobi Partners, and Beacon VC, the corporate venture capital arm of Kasikornbank; Workmate will use the fresh capital to onboard more workers in Indonesia and Thailand on its platform.
NFT minting platform Mintable nets US$13M from Ripple, ex-advisor to Bill Clinton, others; The SG startup also offers an online marketplace that aims to make the buying and trading of NFTs easy and accessible for the masses; To date, approximately 700K items have been minted on its platform.
Accelerating Asian IPO markets: How long can the IPO boom last?; The IPO landscape across Asia faces the challenge of crackdowns on the dominance of Chinese tech firms that have dominated fundraising across the continent; Tensions between the US and China have been ramping up of late, too.
SCI Ecommerce closes ongoing financing round at US$65.4M, inks partnership with TikTok; The additional capital came from EDBI, Financial Investments Corporation, Soriano Corporation; With the help of SCI, brand partners in Indonesia can carry out sales directly through TikTok, activating a new channel for social commerce; The company further claimed that it more than doubled its 2019 revenues to over US$100M in 2020.
iMedia fully acquires online beauty store favful’s Malaysian parent Lovelife Technologies; The deal is the company’s first entry into the commerce business and goes in line with its mission of becoming the country’s #1 integrated digital media group; Over the last year, iMedia has acquired 6 firms, including Ittify, Goody25, BeautifulNara, and Moretify.
Grab-Singtel JV joins race for digital bank licences in Malaysia; Separately, AirAsia’s fintech arm BigPay is also in the race to secure a licence in Malaysia; Malaysia has receives 29 bids for digital banking licences; The central bank BNM will issue up to five licences by Q1 2022; Grab and Singtel had previously partnered to secure a digital banking licence in Singapore.
The future of food: here’s a look at the foodtech industry landscape in Singapore; According to the Asia Alternative Protein Industry Report, several leading startups in the foodtech field are HQed in Singapore; The nation-state is investing heavily in alternative protein research and development, as well as biotechnology to ramp up local food production.
Singapore Airlines launches travel experience digital platform; Pelago is both an online magazine and booking portal that publishes listicles of suggested activities in a destination city and lets travelers reserve slots; The portal focuses on Singapore for now, where visitors can book anything from a beer-sampling experience US$30 to a two-hour Singapore Airlines’ flight simulator session for US$517.
Tokyo and Singapore trail Melbourne in ‘digital nomad’ ranking; Asian cities broadly lag behind on the list of the best spots to live and work remotely, says a Nestpick report; The leading four cities — Melbourne, Dubai, Sydney and Estonia’s capital Tallinn — are all in countries listed as offering digital nomad visas or similar permits that allow people to stay longer than tourists and work independently.
A closer look at Singapore’s emerging AI-based startups; Already, the country accounts for many of the AI-based startups SEA offers; These emerging startups are enhancing innovation and providing solutions to the government, industry and the public to realise the positive impact of AI; For example, national organisations are using AI-based communication tools to improve customer engagement and deliver timely assistance.
Twitter partners with Singapore gov’t for digital skilling of workforce; In a bid to meet SG’s growing demand for a skilled digital workforce, Twitter will work with Institutes of Higher Learning and government agencies to develop a series of virtual programmes designed to introduce current students, recent graduates, and mid-career individuals to digital skills and career opportunities in technology.
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