India introduces a $2B program to boost local IT hardware production
TechCrunch » Asia
by Jagmeet Singh
11M ago
India wants to be a bigger player in the global hardware manufacturing industry, and it sees a route to boosting local economies while doing so. Now, it’s putting some money where its mouth is. The country has announced a $2 billion program designed to promote and incentivize businesses locally building hardware like laptops, PCs, servers and related edge computing kit. On Wednesday, India’s IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Union Cabinet approved the new scheme with a budgetary outlay of over $2.06 billion (17,000 crores Indian rupees). The initiative, which is called the Produc ..read more
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‘Midjourney China’ launches – then its announcement disappears
TechCrunch » Asia
by Rita Liao
11M ago
After igniting a global obsession over generative art, ten-month-old Midjourney appears to be entering the Middle Kingdom, the world’s largest internet market. In an article posted on the Tencent-owned social platform WeChat late on Monday, a corporate account named “Midjourney China” said it has started accepting applications for beta test users. But the account soon deleted its first and only article on Tuesday. It’s unclear why the post disappeared after receiving an overwhelming reception in China. Applications would only be open for a few hours every Monday and Friday, the original post s ..read more
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Alibaba’s autonomous driving lab to focus more on monetization
TechCrunch » Asia
by Rita Liao
11M ago
Alibaba founded Damo Academy in 2017 to carve out a program focused on cutting-edge research that is relatively free of short-term money-making pressure. One of the Academy’s 16 labs conducts research on autonomous driving, which just announced a major change today. Damo’s autonomous vehicle lab will merge into Cainiao, Alibaba’s global logistics network, and will no longer operate under the basic research institute. The news was first reported by the state-affiliated China Securities Journal. A spokesperson at Alibaba confirmed the reshuffle with TechCrunch. The structural change signals a gr ..read more
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Nexon takes 20-year-old MapleStory into web3 with Haechi’s help
TechCrunch » Asia
by Rita Liao
11M ago
Nexon, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, is wading into web3 like some of its peers in Asia. The developer of MapleStory is creating a blockchain-powered ecosystem based on the twenty-year-old massively multiplayer online game, where players can trade in-game assets like outfits, equipment and virtual pets in the form of non-fungible tokens. Around 160,000 people in South Korea are still playing MapleStory today, the company wrote recently in a blog citing data from KMS. Blockchain games have been cropping up everywhere in the past two years, but few have entered the mainstream ..read more
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Terraform’s Do Kwon pleads not guilty to fake travel documents charges
TechCrunch » Asia
by Kate Park
11M ago
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon pleaded not guilty in a Montenegrin court on Thursday to a charge of forging his passport and travel documents. Kwon’s hearing comes a month after Kwon and Chang-joon Han, Kwon’s former colleague, who also pleaded not guilty, were arrested at the airport in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, while trying to fly to Dubai. Their lawyer requested conditions for bail at €400,000 ($437,000) each and proposed house arrest in Montenegro. The next court hearing is set for June 16. On May 7, 2022, Terraform Labs’ stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stable ..read more
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NFT spinoff from newspaper SCMP gets funded to tokenize historical artifacts
TechCrunch » Asia
by Rita Liao
11M ago
When an NFT series commemorating the handover of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China generated $260,000 in sales, Artifact Labs, the startup that launched the collection, saw the long-term potential of tokenizing historical artifacts and making them immutable and accessible to the public. Artifact was born out of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s flagship English newspaper bought by Alibaba for $262 million back in 2015. Its first project comprised non-fungible token versions of SCMP’s front pages from 1997, the year of Hong Kong’s handover, with each item’s rarity level determined by the sig ..read more
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3one4 Capital, driven by contrarian bets, raises $200 million new fund
TechCrunch » Asia
by Manish Singh
11M ago
Partners of 3one4 Capital, a venture capital firm in India, recently went on a road show to raise a new fund. Within two and a half months, at the height of the worsening global economy, they had secured $200 million. It’s the fourth marquee fund for the Bengaluru-headquartered fund, whose portfolio includes four unicorn startups. The fund, sixth overall for 3one4 Capital, was oversubscribed to $250 million but the firm is accepting only $200 million to keep itself lean and disciplined, said Pranav Pai, co-founder and partner at 3one4 Capital. The firm’s decision to limit the fund size is embl ..read more
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India’s Meesho cuts 251 jobs to ‘accelerate timeline to profitability’
TechCrunch » Asia
by Manish Singh
11M ago
Meesho cut 15% of its workforce, or 251 roles, on Friday as the Indian social commerce startup pares its expenses to improve its financial health and confront the “economic reality.” This is the second round of job cuts at Meesho, which eliminated about 150 roles a year ago. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup — backed by Fidelity, Prosus, SoftBank, Sequoia India and Meta — said in a statement that it is looking to “work with a leaner organizational structure to achieve sustained profitability.” “We are committed to ensuring all those impacted have our full support and will be provided a separ ..read more
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Praktis lands $20M to help Indonesian D2C brands handle their supply chains
TechCrunch » Asia
by Catherine Shu
11M ago
Small to medium-sized enterprises contribute 60% of Indonesia’s gross domestic product. But companies in the D2C space still struggle to compete against bigger brands. Praktis wants to put them on a more level playing field. The startup, which handles everything from raw material purchases to order fulfillment for D2C brands and suppliers, announced today it has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by East Ventures (Growth fund), with participation from Triputra Groiup and SMDV. Praktis co-founder and chief executive officer Adrian Gilrandy told TechCrunch that even though ..read more
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Mercu meets deskless workers where they are
TechCrunch » Asia
by Catherine Shu
11M ago
Many employee engagement and retention tools were created with the assumption that workers spent most of their time at desks. But the majority of the global workforce is deskless, meaning that they are usually on the move and don’t have constant access to a laptop. A lot of them are also dissatisfied with their jobs, which means companies need to deal with high churn and low retention rates. Based in Singapore, Mercu wants to help with a platform designed specifically to reach deskless employees. Launched in November 2022, Mercu announced today it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from 5 ..read more
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