Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Nearly 15 new names feature in the list of 47 blocked Chinese apps
Realme C11 to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart, Realme.com
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Series Launching Today: Watch Live Stream
What to expect from Samsung on Wednesday: Galaxy Note 20, new Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Buds Live earbuds, Tab S7 and S7 Plus, and possibly a sequel to Galaxy Fold (The Verge)
What to expect from Samsung on Wednesday: Galaxy Note 20, new Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Buds Live earbuds, Tab S7 and S7 Plus, and possibly a sequel to Galaxy Fold — We might also see a sequel to the beleaguered Galaxy Fold — Samsung's next big product launch is right around the corner …
China apps face the heat everywhere
Amazon, Flipkart pad up for T20 sale before festive test
An early version of Starship takes its first, tentative steps off Earth
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Ignition! [credit: Trevor Mahlmann ]
Just so we're clear about this, SpaceX built a Mars rocket out of rolls of steel.
In tents.
In South Texas.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
HeadSpin to return up to $95M to investors and has replaced its CEO after an internal review revealed financial irregularities; startup now valued at $250M (Kate Clark/The Information)
HeadSpin to return up to $95M to investors and has replaced its CEO after an internal review revealed financial irregularities; startup now valued at $250M — HeadSpin, a mobile app testing company recently valued at $1.16 billion, plans to return up to $95 million in funding to investors …
SpaceX successfully flies its Starship prototype to a height of around 500 feet
SpaceX has been developing Starship, its next-generation spacecraft, at its site in Boca Chica, Texas. The company has built a number of different Starship prototypes to date, include one prior version called the Starhopper that was essentially just the bottom portion of the rocket. Today, the company flew its first full-scale prototype (minus the domed cap that will appear on the final version, and without the control fins that will appear lower down on its sides), achieving an initial flight of around 150 m (just under 500 feet).
This is the furthest along one of these prototypes has come in the testing process. It’s designated Starship SN5, which is the fifth serialized test article. SpaceX actually built a first full-scale demonstration craft called the Starship Mk1 prior to switching to this new naming scheme, so that makes this the sixth one this size they’ve built — with the prior versions suffering failures at various points during preparations, including pressure testing and following a static engine test fire.
SN5 is now the first of these larger test vehicles to actually take off and fly. This prototype underwent a successful static test fire earlier this week, paving the way for this short flight test today. It’s equipped with just one Raptor engine, whereas the final Starship will have six Raptors on board for much greater thrust. It managed to fly and land upright, which means that by all external indications everything went to plan.
Image Credits: NASA Spaceflight (opens in a new window)
Starhopper previously completed a similar hop in August of 2019. SpaceX has an aggressive prototype development program to attempt to get Starship in working order, with the ambitious goal of flying payloads using the functional orbital vehicle as early as next year. Ultimately, Starship is designed to pair with a future Falcon Heavy booster to carry large payloads to orbit around Earth, as well as to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Facebook updates its Messenger Chat Plugin, enabling businesses to chat with customers via the business' website, even if not logged into Facebook (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
Facebook updates its Messenger Chat Plugin, enabling businesses to chat with customers via the business' website, even if not logged into Facebook — Facebook is making it easier for businesses to leverage its Messenger service on their own websites. The company in November 2017 first launched …
Square reports Q2 total net revenue of $1.92B, up 64% YoY, with Cash App generating $875M in bitcoin revenue, gross profit up 167% YoY; stock up 11% after hours (Bloomberg)
Square reports Q2 total net revenue of $1.92B, up 64% YoY, with Cash App generating $875M in bitcoin revenue, gross profit up 167% YoY; stock up 11% after hours — Square Inc.'s sales rose 64% in the second quarter from a year ago, as a pickup in online business activity helped offset pain …
Monday, August 3, 2020
Nokia C3 With Octa-Core CPU, 3,040mAh Battery Launched
Grab launches new consumer financial services, including micro-investments and loans
Grab announced today that its financial unit, which previously focused mainly on services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, is launching a slew of consumer products, including micro-investments, loans, health insurance and a pay-later program.
Based in Singapore, Grab began in 2012 as a ride-hailing company before expanding into on-demand deliveries and other services. In January 2019, it formed a joint venture with ZhongAn Insurance to build a digital insurance marketplace. Since then, its financial services portfolio has grown through a series of partnerships and the acquisition of Bento, which allowed it to offer investment and wealth management services as well.
In February, Grab announced that it had raised up to $856 million to speed up development of its payments and financial services.
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Grab raised $200 billion from South Korean private equity firm Stic, bringing its total funding so far to more than $10 billion at a valuation of about $14.3 billion. A Grab spokesperson declined TechCrunch’s request for comment on that raise.
Tapping into a growing market
During a call with reporters today, when asked if Grab has a timeline for reaching profitability, Reuben Lai, senior managing director at Grab Financial Group, said there isn’t one yet, but “research has shown that there is a real demand for the products we are launching today. What we really want to do is focus on consumers and make sure we deliver products they use. We think profitability and sustainability will follow.”
Grab Financial Group’s new products including AutoInvest, a platform that allows consumers to invest small sums of money through Grab’s app; consumer loans; a buy now, pay later program; and expanded insurance offerings, including hospital insurance that will first launch in Indonesia.
While Grab’s new consumer products were in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lai said the crisis has accelerated demand for services like online shopping, digital payments and insurance.
Grab’s consumer products will compete with services like StashAway, an online investment platform based in Singapore, but Lai said Grab Financial Group’s competitive edge is that there are already millions of Grab users in Southeast Asia. This gives it a built-in consumer base and also data to continually refresh the scoring models it uses to determine creditworthiness.
According to a 2019 report by e-Conomy Asia, a research program run by Google and Temasek, about 70% of people in Southeast Asia are “underbanked,” meaning that they lack access to credit cards or long-term savings products. Even in Singapore, one of Asia’s financial centers, about 40% of consumers qualify as underbanked. Bain and e-Conomy estimate that the digital financial services in Southeast Asia can generate $60 billion in revenue by 2025, making it a lucrative market for Grab.
Micro-investing and insurance
Most of the unit’s insurance was previously focused on Grab’s ecosystem, including drivers and merchants on its platform. But new products, like hospital coverage that will launch in Indonesia first to supplement the country’s national healthcare system, are targeted at consumers.
Chandrima Das, who founded Bento in 2016 and is now head of GrabInvest, said Grab’s new micro-investment product will be accessible through Grab’s digital wallet. Returns can be cashed out and spent on Grab services or merchants that accept GrabPay. it is partnered with liquid fixed-income funds managed by Fullerton Fund Management and UOB Asset Management, and allows users to invest as little as SGD $1 at a time, with the potential to earn returns about about 1.8%. It will launch first in Singapore at the beginning of September.
While Grab Financial Group already offers working capital loans to drivers and purchase financing for merchants on its platform, its new consumer credit products include PayLater, which allows users to pay for Grab services at the end of each month, and will first be available in Singapore and Malaysia.
The company is also offering consumer loans from third-party licensed banks and financial institutions with an application process that it Ankur Mehrota, Grab Financial Group’s head of lending, says is so simple “you can do it while sitting on your couch watching Netflix.” Once approved, Grab serves a distribution platform for the loans.
Mehrota said benefits of the program for merchants include increased gross merchandise value, larger basket sizes and lower cart abandonment rates.
Alphabet borrowed $10B in its largest ever bond issue from the corporate debt market, which it secured at its lowest-ever cost of financing (Kate Duguid/Reuters)
Alphabet borrowed $10B in its largest ever bond issue from the corporate debt market, which it secured at its lowest-ever cost of financing — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) borrowed $10 billion in the investment-grade corporate debt market on Monday, the Google parent's largest ever bond issue …
Electricians are flocking to regions around the US to build data centers, as AI shapes up to be an economy-bending force that creates boom towns (New York Times)
New York Times : Electricians are flocking to regions around the US to build data centers, as AI shapes up to be an economy-bending force...
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Jake Offenhartz / Gothamist : Since October, the NYPD has deployed a quadruped robot called Spot to a handful of crime scenes and hostage...
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