Asia's tech news, weekly: March 14th 2023
SEA's largest telco merger, Taiwan's internet exposure, social media in India, HK's crypto scams headache, South Korean space-tech, wind power in Laos...
• India: Delhi High Court rules use of obscene words on social media platforms must be regulated 'when it crosses a particular line’, and cannot be protected as free speech
• Laos: Thailand’s Electrons Siam Limited inks $692M loan agreement to finance 133-turbine 'Monsoon Wind Power Project' in Laos, set to be largest wind project in SE Asia
• Thailand: DTAC, subsidiary of Norway's Telenor Asia telecoms major, completes merger with True Corporation, the largest telecom merger in SE Asia
"...value of some 100 major generative AI companies totaled $48 billion in January, a sixfold increase from the end of 2020. OpenAI alone is valued at an estimated $29 billion..."
• China: QBoson quantum computing startup raised $14.4M, with state-owned telco China Mobile set to adopt the platform's applications
• Shark Tank Australia applications are now open for Australian citizens and permanent residents with startup business ideas
• Hong Kong: "2336 cryptocurrency-related scams were reported...last year – a 67% rise from 1397 cases logged in 2021. The cases involved about HK$1.7 billion in funds, a 106% increase from the year before..."
• Taiwan: Matsu islands' internet cables cut, with China the primary suspect
• Malaysia: Huawei lobbies for consistent, possibly developing, role in Malaysia, with new gov't to review predecessor's 5G plans, despite this likely leading to higher consumer costs
• Download: 'Trustworthy Use of Artificial Intelligence in Finance - Regulatory Perspectives from Asia Pacific' via Deloitte
"...a lot of the measures that ByteDance is now starting to introduce outside China with TikTok have already been tested aggressively [in China] with Douyin."
• Japan: Gov't to establish permanent flight routes over coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture for testing drones and flying car technologies
• India: Pixxel unveils first images from hyperspectral satellites, with plans for 24-satellite constellation by end of 2025
• China: MiraclePlus - formerly Y Combinator China - early-stage startup accelerator applications for the Fall 2023 batch are now open to founders globally
• Japan: Fomm startup to launch service converting gasoline vehicles into EVs, alongside battery-swap service, potentially accelerating adoption in the country
• Pakistan: Trukkr raises $6.4M focusing on transport management and supply chain solutions for SMEs, alongside fintech solutions to digitise a largely unbanked and undocumented industry
• Philippines: Enstack raises $3M Series A with SME-focused e-commerce 'superapp' allowing management of multiple storefronts, inventory, payments and shipping
Sequoia in India and Southeast Asia' via TechCrunch: “Undergirding their strong conviction is a bet that India and Indonesia and other markets in South Asia will double and triple their GDPs in the next 10 to 15 years…”
• Thailand: Bitkub crypto exchange to invest in newly-established ThaiGPT, stepping into artificial intelligence R&D to explore business use-cases
• Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge 2023 unveils 10 startup teams selected, working on tech in fields including smart cities, robotics, IoT, agri-tech and more
• South Korea: Gov't to boost the country's space industry with initial investment of near $40M
• China: Momenta, GM-backed autonomous driving startup, reportedly looking at either Hong Kong or US IPO, potentially raising up to $1BN
• Australia: Uni of Melbourne to back 2 female-founded health startups -Kali Healthcare at-home pregnancy monitoring startup, and clinical trial participant recruitment startup Torch Recruit
• Vietnam: F88 gains $50M funding from Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund to boost microfinance, aiming to provide underbanked and unbanked with access to small emergency loans
Japan: Warpspace backed by Sompo insurance major, with satellite communications network using optical signals instead of electromagnetics, using less power and enabling higher data volumes
• Vietnam: LG Electronics lifts R&D center to corporate entity status to boost fast-growing auto solutions business, looking at software for in-vehicle infotainment systems
• Taiwan: Google parent Alphabet to launch $9.8M fund boosting Taiwanese media and digital competitiveness over the next 3 years
• China: U Power automotive startup unveils mass-producible 'skateboard chassis-by-wire', set to allow smart EV customization at a lower cost
• Australia's Investible VC firm partners UAE's Hub71 to support tech startups and early-stage firms in Abu Dhabi
• Singapore: GroundupAI secures $1.8M to help industrial firms prevent downtime of assets and improve safety with use of industrial IoT and artificial intelligence
• Australia: Legislation proposed to allow up to 2000 uni students and graduates each year to defer costs of startup accelerator programs using HECS-style loans
China's e-CNY challenge: "...at another shop in the mall...the frequency of customers using e-CNY was about 'once a month' since their establishment started accepting it last year."
• Concerns over Silicon Valley Bank collapse spread to China, given SVB's popularity for China-based startups fundraising in USD, and for some China-focused USD VC firms
• New Zealand: Kitea Health medtech startup raised NZ$6M with world-first wireless brain monitor for remote management of chronic illnesses, paving the way to clinical trials
• A brief look of SE Asia's education-tech space, touching on 6 startups from across the region
And in other news…
» G7 economies to cooperate on 'urban mining', to mine e-waste as a source of rare-earth elements and industrially-important metals to combat supply vulnerabilities
» Fujitsu opens $100K Quantum Simulator Challenge to industry and academia to test quantum simulator on novel problems and real-world applications
» Startup funding in the global semiconductor space in February 2023 - 132 companies raised more than $4.5BN
» Dubai launches new crypto licensing regime, defining requirements for digital asset issuers and service providers
» Major EU tech legislation - Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act - aims to set a global gold standard for regulation of user-generated content
» Future Today Institute's 2023 Future Trends Reports are now available, looking at AI, fintech, space, supply chains and more
» Germany to commence cutting reliance on China-run telecoms equipment, following on from recent block on Chinese purchase of German chips plant
» European Commission to publish strategy for online virtual worlds, hoping to ensure healthy competition between metaverses
» Meta released potentially the most powerful large-language AI models to authorized researchers - which leaked into the public domain, making misuse likely
» Metaverse Universe Q1 2023 update, a visualisation of the virtual worlds sector