Asia's tech news, weekly: April 18th 2023
Japan & quantum computing, cybersec in Australia, China & 'net cables, QR payments in Indonesia, Kazakhstan's MS tech hub, India's own GPS, Taiwan's chip growth...
• China: State-owned firms map out $500M Europe-Middle East-Asia subsea cable network in standalone bid following block over concerns re data security, surveillance, sanctioned entity involvement and more
• Sri Lanka: Nat'l Savings Bank unveils South Asia's 1st blockchain-based Self Sovereign Identity - SSID - solution, giving customers fully-decentralized digital identity management
• New Zealand: Kea Aerospace unveils solar-powered, car-launched, uncrewed stratospheric craft for environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, disaster management, maritime awareness and more
Indonesia: "The value of QR transactions has risen exponentially to hit $6.5BN last year, and should gain further traction as the central bank doubles the transaction limit to 10 million rupiah."
• Kazakhstan: Microsoft to open tech hub in Astana for tech promotion, development and connections across Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Mongolia and Pakistan
• Southeast Asia Startup Talent Report 2023 is now available from Monk's Hill Ventures, looking at hiring trends, compensation, equity data and more
• Japan: Government to provide $31.4M to fund access to cloud-based quantum computing services for local companies
• Australia: Latitude Financial received ransom demand after cyber-attack but will not pay, taking advice from gov't and cyber experts, stating it 'would only encourage further extortion attempts'
• Kazakhstan: Retail e-commerce market value hit $2.9BN in 2022, 30% up from 2021
• Malaysia: Qmed Asia health-tech raises $1.16M via equity crowdfunding with wide-angle health management tech and systems
"Taiwan...chipmaking machine exports to the US [rose] 42.6% in March from a year earlier, reaching a new high of $71.3M...Exports to China...plummeted 33.7%, marking the 9th straight month of decline."
• Japan: ispace market debut on Tokyo Stock Exchange proves to be a stress test, with shares slow to sell whilst world's first commercial lander orbits for April 26th moon landing
• Australia: Gov't begins series of cybersecurity exercises with the banking and finance sector to build response capacity and knowledge in the event of cyberattacks
• Hong Kong startup, i2Cool, takes Gold Award at TERA-Award Smart Energy Innovation Competition with electricity-free cooling tech
• Australia to move up critical minerals value chain with new metals processing facility for WA, building on existing supply of near half of world lithium supply
• The many security challenges - and new risks - that arise from a poorly-implemented TikTok ban
• India: Elena Geo Systems unveils locally-designed NavIC chip using India's navigation satellite system for positioning services
"Taipei's digital ministry...has a 2-year, $18M plan to place satellite receivers in 700 places at home and abroad to maintain gov't communications 'during emergencies such as natural disasters or wars'"
• A look at the growth, opportunities & challenges for electric vehicle adoption in Asia
• 5 Singaporean startups selected for cohort 5 of the Global Innovation Alliance Program from Anthill Ventures
• Download: 'Malaysia - Assessment of the Start-Up Financing Ecosystem' from The World Bank
• Indonesia: Legit Group 'cloud kitchen' startup raised $13.7M Series A with no offline presence, focusing on tech-driven infrastructure
• Vietnam: MindX education-tech firm, recently backed in $15M Series B with 32 campuses, 35K grads and int’l connections with coding-focused education centres
• Singapore: An intro to Singrow, agriculture, genomics and farming startup managing each step from seed breeding to harvesting
"But Russia has continued to acquire chips through circuitous routes, with a large portion flowing through small traders in Hong Kong and mainland China."
• SoftBank Group, owned by Masayoshi Son, to sell SoftBank Ventures Asia VC arm to The Edgeof, investment firm owned by his youngest brother
• Download: AI Index Report 2023 from Stanford University, tracking, collating, distilling, and visualizing data relating to artificial intelligence
• 3 Australian female founders selected for Cartier Women's Initiative, working in social impact solutions in decarbonization, health-tech and education technology
• KPMG Pulse of Fintech H1 2023: "Payments space remains strongest fintech subsector globally, attracting US$53.1 billion in total investment..."
• Bangladesh: Fashol secures $1M pre-seed funding to provide farmers with direct access to markets, and small-hold retailers with last-mile deliveries
• Singapore: TablePointer raises $3M with plug-and-play energy efficiency tech for the food & beverage industry
Australia: "...cash represented just 6% of Australia's point of sale market share in 2022. This is the lowest rate of cash usage in the Asia-Pacific region..."
• Bangladesh's Jatri gains Series A backing with with transport platform and device systems, digitizing ticketing and payments
• Singapore: Circle fintech partners Tribe, SG government-backed blockchain ecosystem builder, for Circle Hacker House, aiming to boost Web3 dev pool in Singapore and Asia Pacific
• China: Saudi Aramco to build a $10BN refining and petrochemical complex in China within 3 years, set to process 300K barrels of crude daily, with Aramco supplying 201K of these barrels
• Philippines: Limitless Lab launches GreatGov GPT, AI tool to help officials 'generate policy drafts and ideas...memoranda, bills, ordinances, guidelines’ and more
• Australia: Fivecast secures $30M Series A with cybersec platform, using AI and ML to more efficiently analyse online info
• The Kazakh startups from Astana Hub that won at the recent Central Asian Tech Awards
"...more than half of Putin’s team participating in the first round of formal talks with Xi were officials directly involved in Russia's weapons and space programs."
And in other news…
» US State Dep't to place cyber and digital officer in every embassy around the world by end of next year to boost diplomat-focused skills and risk awareness
» A look at the recent Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, a hard fork splitting the base blockchain and the final step in a move from proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism
» Musk continues with Twitter's destruction, mislabelling news service NPR as 'state-affiliated media' and losing the organisation's 52 feeds in the process
» Mastercard launches Music Pass NFT, providing musicians with access to Mastercard Artist Accelerator Program and featuring tools and resources to build Web3-focused music activities
» Russia announces 'digital summons' for army conscription, classified as received once they arrive in recipient's inbox
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