Asia's tech news: Aug 23
In this edition: Cybersecurity and Web3 in Taiwan; the scale of the Digital India Act; Sri Lanka's startup ecosystem; Foxconn's Vietnam moves; 'dark vessel' detection in Pacific Islands fisheries...
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• Taiwan: Digital Affairs ministry adds Web3 tech to guard websites against China cyberattacks, incorporating InterPlanetary File System / read in full
• Singapore: NTU Singapore selected by Algorand Foundation to host research and education centre aimed at developing and advancing blockchain tech / read in full
• SEA co-working firms The Hive, Common Ground and The Cluster merge to form The Flexi Group, aiming to roll up other cowork peers across Asia with sights on growth beyond the region and eventual IPO / read in full
• India: Redwing Labs trials VTOL drones - vertical takeoff and landing - to boost healthcare provision to tribal and rural communities in Arunachal Pradesh / read in full
• Thailand: Kasikornbank launches high school student-focused Startup For Better Society Hackathon 2022 nationwide, seeking business ideas and innovations for a sustainable society / read in full
• Elon Musk takes backlash after writing column for China's censorship agency, the Cyberspace Administration, adding an uncomfortable counterpoint to Musk's recent 'free speech' bid for Twitter / read in full
• India: MetaMorphoSys raises $3M Pre-A with API-driven insurance-tech, providing all-in-one aggregation, recommendation, onboarding and claims processing / read in full
• The Digital India Act will cover everything digital, which includes social media platforms, OTT platforms and online apps, along with web3 applications including the metaverse and blockchain.' / read in full
• Sequoia China establishes new accelerator program, YUÈ, providing courses and resources for Chinese entrepreneurs from angel-round to A-round, with graduates potentially in line for $1M Sequoia backing / read in full
• Solomon Islands gov't takes US$66M China loan for 161 mobile comm towers to be built and equipped by security red-flagged Huawei, ignoring report indicating lack of financial viability / read in full
• Taiwan: “Should the Taiwanese chip industry be destroyed due to war or embargo...global production would fall to early 2000s levels for perhaps 15 years...” / read in full
• Sri Lanka: Lankan Angel Network gains $300K grant from US' The Ford Foundation to boost Sri Lanka's startup ecosystem, focusing primarily on income and gender inequality / read in full
• “When TikTok users enter a website through a link on the app, TikTok inserts code that can monitor much of their activity on those outside websites, including their keystrokes and whatever they tap on the page...” / read in full
• India: "Delhi police, looking into identifying people involved in civil unrest in northern India in the past few years, said that they would consider 80% accuracy and above as a 'positive' match..." / read in full
• Vietnam: Apple supplier Foxconn inks $300M MOU with Vietnamese developer to expand facility in country's north, aiming to boost production, diversify and mitigate China risks / read in full
• Taiwan: National security officials urge Foxconn to drop $800M stake in China's Tsinghua Unigroup chipmaker, over combined absence of approvals and national security concerns / read in full
• China: Biren Technology launches its first graphics processing chip, claiming a peak hash rate higher than Nvidia's products / read in full
• Singapore: Take App gains backing from Meta, Y Combinator and others with WhatsApp-based e-commerce tools / read in full
• Japan: A brief look at Toy Eight, AI-backed startup and smartphone-based digital screening tool for monitoring child development / read in full
• Philippines: Central bank to close applications for new virtual asset service provider licenses for 3 years from Septembers, seeking balance between boosting innovation and managing associated risks / read in full
Podcast: ‘A Skeptic’s guide to crypto: Boom and bust’ from the Financial Times
• Pacific Islands: New Zealand’s Xerra detected around 100 possible 'dark vessels' during crack down on illegal fishing around Pacific island of Tuvalu / read in full
• Thailand: Techsauce media platform launches Thailand Accelerator, partnering PeerPower crowdfunding bond platform to aid Thai startups / read in full
• Australia: Startup Onramp Pre-Accelerator September cohort applications open - from idea to startup in 8 weeks, part-time / read in full
• Philippines: edamama parent-focused e-commerce firm closes $20M Series A round, offering services from online community platform to same-day deliveries / read in full
• Vietnam-Singapore Icetea Labs partnered by Polygon and Alpha Venture DAO for its web3 accelerator, focusing on SE Asia based projects / read in full
• Australia: THRIVE Australia Venture Fund launches agri-tech ecosystem, featuring accelerator, corporate innovation, programs and events, and annual Innovation and Investment Summit / read in full
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Wider-world tech news with Asia-Pac / Indo-Pac relevance, alongside meaningful points of reference in relevant fields.
» Iran steps into crypto for cross-border trade with $10M import order, seeing a further method to dodge sanctions / read in full
» “Based on the number of cameras per 1000 people, these cities are the top 10 most surveilled in the world...” / read in full
» Google is finally tweaking its search results algorithm in a bid to fight the growth in low-quality clickbait content, and to prioritise 'content by people, for people' / read in full
» Switzerland's Lugano city authority working on 'formal approvals and installing the technological infrastructure' to add crypto as payment option for all goods and services, including taxes / read in full
» Startup Speed Dating will be part of the Tech in Asia Conference in Jakarta on September 15th and in Singapore on September 21st and 22nd / read in full
» "Illicit finance poses one of the key national security challenges facing the crypto industry." / read in full
» Direct-to-Avatar: The new frontier for brands in the metaverse? / read in full
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