The Latest from Rita Liao
‘The Merge’ could be good news for China’s Ethereum enthusiasts
When China banned cryptocurrency mining and trading, many saw it as putting an end to a burgeoning industry in the world’s second-largest economy. As it turned out, the country’s crypto i
Huawei offers satellite SOS in China where Apple’s is unavailable
A day before Apple unveiled its highly anticipated satellite-powered SOS feature for iPhone 14, Huawei announced its own equivalent. The Chinese telecoms equipment and smartphone giant said its flagsh
Boston’s ClearMotion funded by Nio Capital to switch on in-car metaverse in China
U.S.-China decoupling is expected to discourage cross-border investments between the two superpowers as investors shy away from sanctions and geopolitical risks. But in some areas, Chinese investors a
Waysia raises €10M to deliver Asian grocery in Europe
COVID-19 has reshaped our lives in many ways and given rise to a plethora of services tailored to these newborn needs. Waysia, an Asian grocery delivery platform, is one such startup that retooled in
Inside Tencent’s ambition to create a Triple A console game
Tencent, the biggest social networking and video games company in China, hasn’t really managed to scale its popular products in the Western mainstream. The behemoth’s international expansi
Nvidia the latest collateral damage in US-China tech war
Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of artificial intelligence chips, is at the heart of a new round of U.S. tech sanctions targeting China. Nvidia noted in an SEC filing that the U.S. government
Stacked gets $13M to be the Twitch for web3 gamers
Few areas in tech today are as polarized as the blockchain gaming space. Legacy developers and gamers are calling play-to-earn games Ponzi schemes, while crypto-believers say games that incorporate &#
China’s NetEase snaps up French video game studio Quantic Dream
NetEase, a Chinese technology company and billion-dollar video-game publisher, has acquired French video-game studio Quantic Dream. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal means that NetEase no
Animoca Brands’ Japan unit raises $45M at $500M valuation for NFT push
Asia’s crypto games and web3 investment powerhouse Animoca Brands is making inroads into Japan as its local unit picks up $45 million in financing at a $500 million pre-money valuation. The inve
Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster jazzes up China’s AR startup Nreal with $15M funding
Augmented reality headsets have been around for years, but none of the market players has really expanded beyond the techy demographic and broken into the mainstream. An AR startup hopes to change tha
Oppo stays ‘committed’ to Europe despite sales suspension in Germany
Chinese smartphone titan Oppo will keep Germany as its main operational hub for its European business despite recently withdrawing sales from the country, Billy Zhang, the firm’s vice president
Zilliz, the startup behind the Milvus open source vector database for AI apps, raises $60M, relocates to SF
In 2020, Chinese startup Zilliz — which builds cloud-native software to process data for AI applications and unstructured data analytics, and is the creator of Milvus, the popular open source ve
Ex-Apple engineer admits stealing automotive trade secrets
A case concerning Apple’s driving trade secrets which started in 2018 has come to a close. Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee, pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing confidential information
Safeheron secures $7M to make private keys safer for crypto wallets
Crypto enthusiasts promise to build a decentralized money system that allows people to freely trade without any intermediary intervention. It’s a rosy picture, but recent events of security vuln
Otter.ai challenger Airgram raises $10M to transcribe and time your video calls
There’re plenty of tools out there competing to help people make their video calls breezier. Some, like voice transcription service Otter.ai, have been getting a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic
Tesla doesn’t need to hit the panic button over China heat wave disruptions just yet
Some parts of China are suffering from record high temperatures in the past few weeks, prompting local governments to halt industrial power use, including those of battery plants. When news reaches th
Eat Just bags $25M, gets Alibaba’s help to sell alternative protein in China
China is a notoriously difficult market for international startups to crack, but one company seems to have found the recipe for wooing the country’s picky consumers. Three years after Eat Just l
SoftBank, Sequoia China back this ERP startup enabling China’s online exporters
Thanks to cross-border e-commerce platforms, China continues to be a major exporter of consumer goods for the world in the online shopping age. It’s not just marketplaces like Amazon and AliExpr
Tencent veterans secure $13M to build cross-chain decentralized identities
There are many startups working on decentralized identities for the next generation of the internet. Four Tencent veterans want their offering .bit, an identity protocol built on the blockchain, to be
Aramco’s Prosperity7 powers AI drug firm Insilico’s $95M round
Hong Kong-based drug discovery and development company Insilico has secured fresh capital at a time that its CEO described as a “biotech winter.” The firm has raised $35 million on the hee