Temasek to invest US$100M in India’s food delivery business Zomato

Singapore government-owned Temasek is in talks to invest up to US$100 million in India’s food delivery company Zomato, according to The Economic Times.

The discussions between the two parties have been ongoing since the end of last year, said the report citing unnamed sources.

The round was almost finalised, but the terms of the deal are being renegotiated given the impact of COVID-19 on business operations, India’s investment policies and competitive landscape with Amazon’s launch (of its food delivery business, said the source

Temasek currently owns a 3 per cent stake in the startup.

SGInnovate launched new AI accelerator Deep Tech for Good

Singapore-based deeptech facilitator SGInnovate has announced a new initiative called Deep Tech for Good.

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According to a report by the Singapore Business Review, the initiative aims to accelerate the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) along with other technologies to improve the human condition and drive sustainable development across different markets.

Furthermore, the report stated that the project seeks to drive awareness among global leaders across the public and private sectors to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and success cases where research-based innovations have helped improve lives.

It’s also on a mission to build and scale deeptech solutions as well as catalyse collaborations amongst corporates, startups, and governments.

Deep Tech for Good will follow through with a series of thought leadership events that are expected to involve startup founders, investors, corporate leaders, researchers, and government representatives in 2020.

One of the events that will take place on July 23 is AI for Good, headlined by Professor Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of Mila and Co-founder of Element AI; and Dr Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute.

Sunway iLabs launches new super accelerator programme

Sunway iLabs today announced the launch of a new 4-month “super accelerator programme” for early-stage startups.

The programme is aimed at improving startups’ chances to successfully commercialise their products and services in the market.

Supported by Sunway Group, SunSEA Capital and Gobi Partners, the programme will provide the startups with capital, mentorship and market access.

Led by Sunway Group chief innovation officer and Sunway iLabs director Matthijs Van Leeuwen, the Super Accelerator programme focuses on delivering value within five key verticals — smart cities, edutech, digital health, food and agritech and e-commerce.

The programme will provide selected start-ups up to RM100,000 (US$23,000) of seed funding and assist them in getting a followup funding after graduation.

Embracing and leading the new normal due to Covid-19, the programme will be mostly delivered virtually through iLabs Dojo, a newly developed online learning and training platform.

Interviews, pitching, mentoring and business meetings will be conducted via video conferencing.

Also Read: In June, startup investment in Southeast Asia continued to weather the storm

Participating startups can also look forward to academic support from Sunway University in talent recruitment and research and development opportunities.

Unicorn India Ventures invests US$650K in blockchain startup ChitMonks

Mumbai-based early stage venture capital fund Unicorn India Ventures has invested US$650,000 pre-Series A in Hyderabad based fintech/blockchain startup ChitMonks.

ChitMonks has developed a product to empower the state government regulators to administer chit fund operations across the state on a private permissioned blockchain network.

They are extending their services to Chit fund companies of any size and anywhere in India by digitally enabling them with process efficiency (payment collections, online* auctions, eKYC, eSign etc), better underwriting (bank statement analysis, credit profiling, credit liabilities) and making their offerings more inclusive.

The post In brief: Temasek reportedly in talks to invest US$100M in Zomato; SGInnovate launches ‘Deep Tech for Good’ appeared first on e27.