Monday, August 23, 2021

Chinese e-comics app Kuaikan, which has 50M MAUs, raises $240M Series F from CCB International, Tencent, and others, source says at a $1.25B valuation (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Chinese e-comics app Kuaikan, which has 50M MAUs, raises $240M Series F from CCB International, Tencent, and others, source says at a $1.25B valuation  —  - Comics apps valued at $1.25 billion, a person familiar says  — Kuaikan is also backed by the likes of Coatue and ByteDance



Bangalore-based Zetwerk, a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items, raises $150M Series E led by D1 Capital Partners at a $1.33B valuation (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Bangalore-based Zetwerk, a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items, raises $150M Series E led by D1 Capital Partners at a $1.33B valuation  —  An Indian startup that operates a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items is the latest to attain the coveted unicorn status in the South Asian market.



Synopsys design software uses AI to make chips more power efficient

Major chip firms like Intel Corp or Nvidia Corp can spend two years and hundreds of millions of dollars to perfect their designs. https://ift.tt/3sN8JZy

Digital coin adoption to increase in small-town India: WazirX CEO

Touted as the most important asset class of the 21st century, more than 1.5 crore Indians are currently holding over Rs 1,500 crore worth crypto assets. https://ift.tt/2XQp4Be

Ethiopia to Build Local Rival to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp

Ethiopia has begun developing its own social media platform to rival Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, though it does not plan to block the global services, the state communications security agency... https://ift.tt/3sCZn2c

WhatsApp Testing New Payment Shortcut for Android Users

WhatsApp for Android appears to be getting a payment shortcut on the chat bar. Separately, WhatsApp has launched a beta programme for users on WhatsApp for Desktop. WhatsApp is also found to be... https://ift.tt/3gnwIJy

Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; it was last valued at $1.2B in 2024 (Meir Orbach/CTech)

Meir Orbach / CTech : Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; ...