Monday, July 20, 2020
Credit demand is up, but fintech lenders can't raise low-cost debt
Report: in Q2, US smartphone YoY sales fell 10% for Samsung, 23% for Apple, 25% overall; iPhone SE popular among people with older iPhones and Android switchers (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)
Report: in Q2, US smartphone YoY sales fell 10% for Samsung, 23% for Apple, 25% overall; iPhone SE popular among people with older iPhones and Android switchers — New data from Counterpoint Research today highlights the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on smartphone sales.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Delhi Court Directs Google, Facebook to Take Down Posts Around IAS Officer
Endgame Duo to Make $200 Million Netflix Film With Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 Confirmed to Launch on August 5
Samsung Galaxy M31s With 6,000mAh Battery to Launch in India on July 30
OnePlus Nord Teased to Come With Google's Duo, Messages, Phone Apps
OnePlus Buds May Come in Black, Blue, and White Colour Options
Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng closes a $500 million Series C+ round
Xpeng Motors, the Chinese electric vehicle startup, has raised about $500 million in Series C+ funding from investors including Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China.
Based in Guangzhou, Xpeng’s other backers include a roster of top Chinese tech companies and investors, including Alibaba Group, Xiaomi, IDG Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, GGV Capital and Primavera Capital.
The company’s last funding announcement before this one was in November, when it said it had closed a $400 million Series C and taken on Xiaomi as a strategic investor.
The company didn’t disclose its current post-money valuation, but a source told TechCrunch after its Series C in November that it was “better” than the 25 billion yuan valuation it achieved after its Series B+ round announced in August 2018. Since then, Xpeng has hit two milestones: it released its second smart electric vehicle, the P7 sports sedan, in April 2020, as China was recovering from COVID-19 lockdowns, and in May 2020, secured a production license for its second factory, located in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province.
The company’s first electric vehicle, the G3 SUV, was launched in December 2018.
Xpeng said last year it eventually plans to hold an initial public offering but wants to build its core business first. Along with other Chinese startups like Nio, Xpeng also competes with Tesla and established automakers like BYD and BAIC group that offer their own electric vehicles.
Tesla is currently suing a Xpeng engineer for allegedly misusing Tesla’s trade secrets. Last month, a United States District Court judge denied one of Tesla’s requests related to the lawsuit’s discovery process. Xpeng said at the time that the ruling “highlights Tesla’s gamemanship and use of discovery as an improper measure to stop with its competitor from competing successfully in the self-driving industry.”
One of Xpeng’s differentiators from some of its rivals is that it builds almost all of its software, and some of its essential hardware, in-house instead of relying on OEMs, including XPILOT, its autonomous driving system; Xmart OS, its in-car operating system; and over-the-air firmware updates.
All electric vehicle makers in China are coping with strong market headwinds. China has the largest electric vehicle market in the world, with more than 400 electric vehicle manufacturers registered in the country. The market grew quickly thanks in large part to government investment and subsidies for buyers, but last year many of those financial incentives were pulled back as Beijing grew concerned about the industry’s rapid expansion.
Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many Chinese automakers to shut down production earlier this year, this triggered a huge drop in electric vehicle sales (at the same time, sales of traditional cars also fell), leading to speculation that there may be consolidation among rival EV companies.
China’s EV startup Xpeng pulls in $500 million Series C+
Xpeng, an electric vehicle startup run by former Alibaba executive He Xiaopeng, said Monday it has raised around $500 million in a Series C+ round to further develop models tailored to China’s tech-savvy middle-class consumers.
The announcement followed its Series C round of $400 million closed last November. A source told TechCrunch that the company’s valuation at the time had exceeded the 25 billion yuan ($3.57 billion) round raised in August 2018.
The new proceeds bring the five-year-old Chinese startup’s to-date fundings announced to $1.7 billion.
Investors in the latest round include Hong Kong-based private equity firm Aspex Management; the storied American tech hedge fund Coatue Management; China’s top private equity fund Hillhouse Capital; and Sequoia Capital China. The other existing big-name backers are Foxconn, Xiaomi, GGV Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, IDG Capital, and Primavera Capital.
Despite the sizable round, Xpeng is headed for a slew of challenges. Electric vehicle sales in China have shrunk in the wake of reduced government subsidies set in motion last year, and the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to further dampen demand as the economy weakens.
Xpeng’s Chinese rival Byton, which counts heavyweights backers like Tencent, FAW Group, and Foxconn, is already showing signs of strain as it furloughed about half of its 450 North America-based staff citing coronavirus impact. In June, the company put the brakes on production for internal reorganization.
Xpeng’s other competitors seem to have proven more resilient. In April, Nasdaq-listed Nio secured a $1 billion investment for its Chinese entity, while Li Auto ventured to file for a U.S. public listing in July.
Xpeng claims it has so far been able to withstand coronavirus challenges. In May, the company obtained a production license for its fully-owned car plant in a city near its Guangzhou headquarters, signaling its reduced dependence on manufacturing partner Haima Automobile.
Sources: eBay is in advanced talks to sell its classified ads business to Norway's Adevinta for ~$8B (Wall Street Journal)
Sources: eBay is in advanced talks to sell its classified ads business to Norway's Adevinta for ~$8B — Deal could value eBay unit at roughly $8 billion or more — EBay Inc. EBAY -0.89% is in advanced talks to sell its classified-ads business to Norway's Adevinta AS ADE -0.69% A …
United Arab Emirates launches mission to Mars
Astrophysicists Unveil Biggest-Ever 3D Map of Universe
UAE Launches 'Hope' Mars Probe From Japan Spaceport
TikTok Said to Consider London, Other Locations for Headquarters
The US NLRB rules that Amazon must negotiate with the Amazon Labor Union, which represents ~5K workers at its Staten Island warehouse; Amazon plans to appeal (Greg Bensinger/Reuters)
Greg Bensinger / Reuters : The US NLRB rules that Amazon must negotiate with the Amazon Labor Union, which represents ~5K workers at its ...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
