Asia's tech news, weekly to January 3rd 2023
In this edition: Alt-protein in Thailand; e-CNY red packets in China; TSMC's moves into Germany; South Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy tensions; Muslims in the metaverse; and more.
• South Korea: National Assembly partners FiscalNote for AI-driven policy intelligence, regulatory tracking and more, allowing gov't to monitor overseas legislation affecting Korea
• China: Senior Automation raises $14M Series A+ funding with driverless solutions for port transport, boasting only 150 employees, 110 of whom are in R&D
• Taiwan: Foxconn may face fine over 'unauthorised' investment in China-based chipmaking firm, Tsinghua Unigroup
China: "Huawei's inventory of smartphone chips designed by semiconductor unit HiSilicon reached zero in the third quarter, according to a Counterpoint report."
• Malaysia: Gov't Ministry's MYStartup initiative partners AirAsia Academy to boost knowledge and education in the country's startup community
• South Korea: N15 Partners and US' Starburst accelerators ink MOU on accelerating partnerships to boost the Korean startup and aerospace ecosystems
• China's Tencent Cloud partners South Korea's Nexon global video publisher to launch Nexontown metaverse platform
• Philippines: UNO Digital Bank partners Singapore's Trusting Social to boost consumer lending options for Filipino consumers, utilizing telco data in credit risk assessment
• India: Virgio 'fast fashion' startup secures $37M Series A, digitizing from design to purchasing to streamline overall production
• South Korea: Government launches $76M fund aiming to nurture 30 high-value food-tech startups by 2027
• Taiwan: Gov't launches investigation into TikTok over allegations that the platform is operating illegally on the island via an affiliate company
• China: e-CNY wallet takes cue from Alipay and WeChat Pay with addition of electronic 'red packet' feature, hoping to boost sign-ups for approaching Lunar New Year holiday period
• Japan: Toyota supplier, Denso, looks to Taiwanese partners in move to reshape auto supply chains, seeing the need to limit dependence on Chinese components
ICYMI: "Google and Meta will together capture 48.4% of all U.S. digital ad revenue this year (28.8% for Google and 19.6% for Meta), down from 54.7% at their peak in 2017..."
• Japan: Space One to conduct maiden rocket launch at the end of February, using the country's first private-sector launch pad
• Startup India Innovation Week is set for January 10–16, with webinars and in-person events scheduled
• Bangladesh's Shuttle gains Accelerating Asia and South Asia Tech backing with ride-share approach clubbing 4-10 people together in sedans and minivans, charging less than 1/3 the price of regular ride-sharing
• India: An intro to Carnot Technologies, helping farmers to make data-driven decisions to earn up to 30% more using IoT and artificial intelligence
• Thailand: Flylab agri-tech startup closes seed and pre-A rounds, raising $1M, with black soldier fly-based ingredients for alternative proteins, fertilizer and oils
• Indonesia: Bakool gains high-profile backing with group buying platform for fresh produce focused on Indonesia's untapped tier 2 cities
Social media: "In private hands, our choice is limited, toxicity is rewarded, rage is called engagement, public trust is corroded, and basic human decency is often an afterthought."
• China: Botinkit raises near $10M pre-Series A with automated cooking robots, providing both hardware and software
• Vietnam: Quqo B2B distribution platform secures $1M seed funding, connecting buyers, suppliers, and end-consumers in the FMCG sector, digitizing to streamline supply chains
• South Korea commits $441M to improving drone defense, following difficulties in containing incursion of 5 drones from North Korea
"Police...raided facilities in [Thailand's] Sa Kaeo province and found numerous cross-border high-speed internet cables used to support call scammers in Cambodia..."
• India: Startup India Seed Fund Scheme approves 126 incubators, with 656 startups selected for participation
• Taiwan's TSMC reportedly in advanced talks about setting up its first European plant in the German city of Dresden
• Philippines: Gov't this year activated 4757 WiFi sites in 17 regions, 75 provinces and in Metro Manila, in addition to 606 cities and municipalities, as part of digitization initiative
"...active NFT buyers and sellers...now down to just over a third of its peak in January 2022. NFTs are also being 'minted' much less, with the number of new NFTs on the ethereum blockchain down by nearly 60%..."
• Hong Kong: An intro to AiDA, artificial intelligence-driven assistant to fashion designers
• China: PonyAI autonomous vehicle firm gains driverless road test permit for 10 robotaxis to learn in challenging urban traffic scenarios across a 20KM square area in Beijing
• India: A wish list for the 2023 Budget: 'India needs to emphasize on capacity building for emerging sectors, aid startups for country's march to the top'
"India loves religious festivals, but are its citizens ready to attend such celebrations in virtual reality?"
• Muslims in the Metaverse: "New virtual products like ‘Kaaba glasses’ are raising thorny questions about so-called 'metaworship'"
• Taiwan Semiconductor begins production of its most advanced chips in-country, chips with 3-nanometre technology, at the same time as tripling investment in Arizona plant
• China to invest $143.6 billion in subsidizing the country's semiconductor industry; but no longer to support 'compound' projects due to often-overestimated financial feasibility
• India: Ola CEO blog calls for alternate supply chain to curb the country's increasing dependence on China for lithium, proposing partnerships with Australia, Chile, Argentina and others
• South Korea: An examination of the tensions at play in the country's recently-released Indo-Pacific Strategy
• State-run China Digital Asset Trading Platform launch ceremony took place January 1st, running on the 'China Cultural Protection Chain' blockchain
"Vietnam’s startup market is set to receive investment capital worth US$5 billion during the 2023-2025 period."
• China: TechCrunch looks at how the country's tech firms are developing competitors to Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2, and the difficulties and challenges they face
• India: Government reportedly to launch Digital India Innovation Fund to focus on developing deep-tech startups
• South Korea: Paywork SaaS firm gains Pre-Series A with tools for self-employed, freelancers and specially-hired workers, providing business-related services spanning invoicing, contracts, statements and more
And in other news…
» Download: 'Suggested for You: Understanding How Algorithmic Ranking Practices Affect Online Discourses and Assessing Proposed Alternatives'
» Australia and the United States enter the CLOUD Act Agreement to facilitate access to electronic data in investigations of serious cross-border crime
» A look at the steps L'Oreal, Nike and LVMH are taking into the metaverse
» Google to launch Blockchain Node Engine, cloud-based fully-managed service for Ethereum developers and Web3 projects
» ‘The case for blockchain in financial services has been dented by failures': The Financial Times looks at the year past through the lens of those projects that didn't make the cut
