Asia's tech news, weekly: January 24th 2023
In this edition: Tesla in Indonesia, Australia's batteries opportunity, state-owned ride-hailing in China, big data and Philippines' fisheries, Cambodia's startup scene...
• China: Alibaba-owned Alipay partners Splitit Payments for BNPL 'Pay After Delivery' option for European AliExpress marketplace shoppers
• Indonesia: Tesla nears preliminary deal for Indonesia factory, to capitalize on the country's reserves of key battery metals
• India: Gov't reportedly allowing banks to verify some transactions using facial recognition and iris scans to beat fraud but highlighting lack of protective laws
• Australia: Queensland 'battery industry has the potential to contribute $1.3 billion in annual gross value-add and produce 9,100 jobs by 2030'
"...Twitter is in the process of ending its physical presence in Australia, cutting the handful of staff that survived its previous rounds of layoffs."
• India: Gov't proposes making Press Bureau and other agencies final arbiters on what information is misleading online, forcing social media firms to adhere to judgments
• Philippines: Salmon fintech launches point-of-sale lending allowing underbanked and unbanked customers to defer payments
• Reactor Ventures opens applications for Reactor Venture Analyst Prep Course, 6-month program for students interested in a VC career
• Australia: Recharge Industries plans Au$300M factory to build lithium-ion batteries, aiming for production late 2024, in bid to mitigate China supply chain risks
• China: Gov't to launch its own transportation platform offering ride-hailing and flights, seen as part of moves to tighten control on the country's tech sector
• Philippines: Mayani raises $1.7M with fisheries management tech, sourcing from over 139K smallhold farmers and data-matching to shorten route-to-market
• Philippines: BillEase consumer finance app partners China's Alipay+ for 'buy now, pay later' options in online shopping
• Taiwan: Startup Global Program S23 launches to connect international startups with top-tier Taiwanese companies
• Singapore's Seventh Sense to establish AI R&D hub in Melbourne focusing on AI-based computer vision and cryptography for defense, security, fintech and retail
"CBDCs are a huge undertaking. Many of the motivations for doing it are very poor and there are a lot of risks."
• South Korea: PeopleFund P2P lending platform raises $20M, connecting borrowers and investors using AI-powered risk management and credit scoring system
• China: Central Bank enables offline payments for digital yuan, allowing Android users to make payments even if the device has no power or internet connection
• China: Tianjin Port Group and Huawei deepen ties with digital twin project to boost automation and digitization in global top-10 shipping port
• Singapore's Quest Ventures and raiSE open applications for Sustainable Impact Accelerator, seeking socially-impactful enterprises
• Plug and Play China partners Hong Kong Science & Tech Parks Corp'n for Elevator Pitching Competition 2023, seeking startups in fintech and proptech
• South Korea: Ministry of Science & ICT to invest $12BN to foster 10 deep-tech unicorn startups by 2027, alongside establishing Scale-up Nat'l Tech Strategy Center
"In the next 5 years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers...will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill."
• Philippines: An intro to the 10 startups that recently completed the 917Ventures Accelerator Program by 500 Global
• Hub Australia unveils 62 purpose-driven companies for Flexi-Impact Program
• Australia & New Zealand: Techstars x Founder Institute Startup Weekend Online is set for February 17-19 - 54 hours from idea to startup
• Cambodia: Meet the Rising Giants podcast, focusing on Cambodia's startup and entrepreneurship scene
"In the non-crypto world, there are rules, norms and mores that would aim to prevent this kind of thing from happening. But cryptoland is...a largely unregulated free-for-all of hype, grift and charlatanism..."
• Australia: New South Wales firms and research organisations now eligible for up to $4M to commercialise quantum computing hardware and software
• West Japan Railway to deploy tests of facial recognition-operated ticket gates at 2 Osaka train stations
• China: Digital Yuan reportedly used to buy securities for the first time
• Myanmar: "...authorities instructed electronic payment companies to verify user identities and keep records. Certain services now require ID for every transaction."
• Australia: "About 2,500 current staff and a number of former staff at [Queensland's] second-largest university have had personal data stolen…"
• Indonesia: Creative Gorilla Capital VC launches $20M fund to back consumer-focused and direct-to-consumer startups
• Inypay neobank preps for launch with services including micro-lending, remittances, micro-insurance and beyond, aiming for launch across 5 countries
In other news…
» ChatGPT AI-chatbot has another skill - crafting sophisticated 'polymorphic' malware which can destroy your computer
» Universal Digital Payment Network launched in Davos, providing interoperability between regulated stablecoins and CBDCs and built by German, Chinese and UK firms
» US Supreme Court may reconsider key tenets of 'net speech - that platforms, not gov’t, decide what to keep online or remove, and that platforms aren’t legally responsible for users
» Open Metaverse Foundation launched by Linux Foundation for collaboration on developing open-source software and standards
» Evigence raises $18M with food freshness tech extending shelf life by 20% and reducing waste by 30%
» Pillz raises pre-seed funding from Xsolla gaming payments platform with 'wearable NFTs', allowing display on necklaces, bracelet, keychains and other accessories
» Norway's DNV maritime organizations hit by ransomware attack, forcing shut-down of ShipManager system and affecting near 1000 vessels
» Microsoft's VALL-E launches with AI-driven voice reproductions based on as little as 3 seconds of audio
» Safe City Malta project apparently discontinued upon Huawei contract expiry, with state-owned implementation firm dissolved
"Artificial intelligence developed by startup company DoNotPay will defend two speeding offences in court in the US in the coming weeks."
