Asia's tech news, weekly: December 5th 2023
South Korean CBDC, Alibaba ends quantum lab, China & alt-proteins, Cambodia-Vietnam QR payments, quantum in Singapore, North Korean MacOS malware...
• UK's Standard Chartered becomes first foreign bank to join China's CBDC pilot, aiming to explore e-CNY use in cross-border merchant payments, trade financing and supply chain finance
• North Korean cybercrime group, BlueNorOff, found to be using a new, fairly simple yet very functional malware that aids attackers commit financial crimes targeting Apple's MacOS
• China-owned Nexperia chip-maker to acquire Dutch semiconductor firm following Netherlands gov't approval, gaining chips using ambient electricity sources such as light as a power source
• India may gain agreements for 3 more semiconductor fabrication facilities in the coming months, representing investment of $8-12BN
"Geopolitical developments are shaping India’s view that it cannot be agnostic about technology and that it does have to make choices. And technology in turn is driving and shaping competitive geopolitics."
• Japan: Sky Perfect JSAT satellite operator and NTT Corp have partnered to sell Project Kuiper services in 2024, focusing on businesses and gov't organizations in Japan
• South Korea: Bank of Korea announces 100,000 citizens will be able to make real-world CBDC transactions using 'digital won' in 2024 trial of digital currency
• Laos: Gov't to require 6.45M cell phone users to register numbers and facial scans, citing a crackdown on online scams - and content critical of the one-party communist government
• China: Alibaba cuts quantum computing laboratory and team from research arm, donating lab and experimental equipment to Zhejiang University
• Indonesia: Jala aquaculture tech startup raised $13.1M Series A with focus on shrimp farming, aiming to build on existing customer base across 35K water bodies and near 20K users
• Singapore: An intro to Nutrition Technologies, farming fly larvae for animal feed and fertilizers
• Taiwan's iPhone maker Foxconn to invest an additional $1.6BN in India, adding to 9 production campuses and over 30 factories in the country
• HSBC Australia unveils new $228M venture debt fund aimed at supporting Australian tech firms, offering loans from $10M to $30M and targeting VC-backed scaleups ready for their next phase of growth
"...Asia Research Engagement found that to align with a climate-safe future and decarbonize, alternative proteins would need to make up 50% of China’s protein consumption by 2060..."
• China: Hexin Technology CPU developer announces processor based on RISC architecture, featuring 110 billion transistors and built on the IBM Power ISA open standard
• South Korea has launched its first military satellite, via SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, gaining independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities
• Singapore: Monetary Authority publishes guidelines for digital currency landscape, including a blueprint for tech infrastructure required to facilitate digital money transactions
• Japan: Tokyo Venture Capital Hub, aiming to support the government's broad goal of boosting annual startup investment near tenfold by 2027
• India: EMotorad e-bikes startup raised $20M Series B, aiming to disrupt China-heavy industry with Indian manufacturing
• Australia: Sparc Hydrogen completes first trial of green hydrogen production using 'water splitting', using concentrated solar energy to take hydrogen from water molecules
• Cambodia and Vietnam launched bilateral cross-border payments, enabling citizens of both countries to make payments in local currencies using VietQR and KHQR codes
• Australia: Regulator proposes reforms including targeted consumer protections and codes to prevent anti-competitive conduct by major digital platforms including Amazon and Meta
"Philippine digital lending market is expected to grow by 45.4% to reach $488.8M in 2023 from $336M in 2022... the market is expected to ring up $1.68BN by 2027..."
• Australia: H2site and Gold Hydrogen partner for natural hydrogen pilot plant with process claiming to recover over 95% of available hydrogen alongside valuable co-products including helium
• Japan's Toshiba and Singapore's SpeQtral boost existing collaboration around quantum key distribution hardware to deliver Singapore's National Quantum-Safe Networks+ project
• China: Biren AI chip firm gains $282M Guangzhou government-backed investment, in part a bid to develop domestic supply chain
• Fr8Labs, focusing on the logistics industry with SaaS operating system and with plans for an 'open ecosystem' allowing participation via APIs
• China: Landspace to launch its 3rd methane-oxygen Zhuque 2 rocket in January 2024, with satellites as payload
• Australia, US and UK to collaborate on Deep-space Advanced Radar Capability, with facility set for Western Australia expected to be operational by 2026
• India, China & Foxconn: "Manufacturing an entire iPhone 15 within India — that is going to be projected as a big moment not just for Apple, but [also] for India.”
• Vietnam: FEBE Ventures VC launches $75M 2nd fund for early-stage startups, 2.5 times larger than first fund and with 90% of corpus already committed
'More than 40% of [Australian] shoppers between 18 and 39 use the [buy now, pay later] installment payment offering, the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a study released Sunday...'
• China: DeepSeek AI launches conversational AI, DeepSeek Chat, trained on a dataset of 2 trillion tokens in English and Chinese and claiming equal to or better performance than Meta’s Llama
• Hong Kong's Animoca Brands backs TON blockchain ecosystem, adding to Telegram's endorsement of TON as the messaging platform's blockchain-of-choice
• 'US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned the Sinbad cryptocurrency mixing service for its use as a money-laundering tool by the North Korean Lazarus hacking group'
• Singapore's WindApp raises $3.8M pre-seed funding with decentralized finance approach to payments, built around blockchain and crypto
• Stellantis, parent to brands including Jeep and Chrysler, acquired a 20% stake in China's Leapmotor to gain a presence in the growing global EVs market
• Inflow raises $2M with platform allowing small brands access to Vietnam manufacturer supply chains, connecting with producers willing to handle smaller garment quantities
• Download: 'The Evolution of Consumer Payments in Australia - Results from the 2022 Consumer Payments Survey' from the Reserve Bank of Australia (pdf link)
• Thailand: Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research & Innovation recently hosted VCs in move to boost funding networks and investment in Thai startups
Quantum technologies: "Toshiba is a global leader in the field. It has successfully sent and received quantum encrypted data transmitted 600 kilometers between Tokyo and Osaka..."
• UAE gaming startup, Farcana, backed by Hong Kong's Animoca Brands with games offering tournaments backed by permanent Bitcoin prize pools
• New Zealand: Icehouse Ventures VC raised NZ$10M in equity capital, building on NZ$95M raised for its funds earlier in the year
• Download: 'Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040' (pdf link)
• India: Brinc and GVFL Limited partner for A4X accelerator program for tech startups in 4 broad fields
• South Korea: An intro to 10 of the country's tech startup accelerators
• ME Innovation Fund from Mitsubishi Electric, driving $35M in investments into startups across Southeast Asia
• UAE gaming startup, Farcana, backed by Hong Kong's Animoca Brands with games offering tournaments backed by permanent Bitcoin prize pools
• Australia: West Tech Fest secured a further $500K in sponsorship from WA Government, in support of the festival for another 2 years
• Philippines: GCash partners Mayani agri-fisheries platform to boost rural financial inclusion
Tech news beyond Asia & the Indo-Pacific:
» Amazon inks contract with SpaceX for 3 launches of Project Kuiper satellites using SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, effectively using SpaceX to launch a Starlink competitor
» 24M Technologies sees production ahead for 'semisolid-state' EV batteries near 40% cheaper than lithium-ion, and with 50% energy efficiency boost
» Millennium Space Systems gains US Space Force approval for production of 6 satellites for medium Earth orbit to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles
» Kayrros Methane Watch, a platform allowing monitoring of large methane emissions, from broad regional overviews to individual facility levels
"We cannot allow dollar-backed stablecoin providers outside the US to have the privilege of using our currency without the responsibility of... procedures to prevent terrorists from abusing their platform..."
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