Latest from Kate Park
Singapore’s ride-hailing and food delivery company Grab is expanding its services beyond ride and food delivery by doubling down on the competitive restaurant booking industry in Southeast Asia. Grab confirmed…
A Seoul court issued an arrest warrant for Brian Kim, the founder of South Korean internet giant Kakao, on allegations of stock price manipulation related to the company’s takeover of…
The Korean tech giant is acquiring Oxford Semantic Technologies, a U.K.-based knowledge graph startup that has built an AI reasoning engine.
The warrant is part of an investigation into alleged stock market manipulation related to a high-profile bidding war for music label, SM Entertainment.
Wittaya Aqua enables seafood farmers to consolidate existing data points across the seafood supply chain.
Visual effects (VFX) have emerged as essential in filmmaking and have transformed storytelling and creativity in the film industry with its diverse digital techniques. However, the high cost of VFX…
Fundraising
Japan’s SmartHR raises $140M Series E as strong demand for HR tech boosts its ARR to $100M
The round was led by KKR and Teachers’ Ventures Growth, an investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son announced on Thursday that the Japanese tech giant has set up a joint venture in the country with Chicago-based health tech company Tempus. Together, the…
Samsara Eco makes and sells fossil-free polymer resins. These resins can be integrated into supply chains and potentially replace plastic packaging and textile products with more sustainable alternatives. The Australian…
k-ID’s platform makes it easy for game devs to comply with child safety and data privacy regulations.
Self-driving vehicles rely on many sensors to detect objects and the world around them. The conventional approach is to work with cameras and lidars. But some tech companies and startups…
With the advent of generative AI, AI applications are transforming and reshaping various industries and changing how people work. Software development is no exception. San Francisco- and Tokyo-based startup Autify…
After announcing a strategic partnership with SoftBank in April, Perplexity — the AI search engine that has ambitions to take on Google — is now using the deal to expand…
AI
Fabless AI chip makers Rebellions and Sapeon to merge as competition heats up in global AI hardware industry
South Korea’s fabless AI chip industry saw a slew of fundraising events over the last couple of years as demand for hardware to power AI applications skyrocketed, and it seems…
When generative AI tools started making waves in late 2022 after the launch of ChatGPT, the finance industry was one of the first to recognize these tools’ potential for speeding…
We caught up with Antler founder and CEO Magnus Grimeland about the startup scene in Asia, the current tech startup trends in the region and investment approaches during the rise…
Fertility remains a pressing concern around the world — birthrates are down in many countries, and infertility rates (that is, the inability to conceive) are up. Rhea, a Singapore- and…
Government officials and AI industry executives agreed on Tuesday to apply elementary safety measures in the fast-moving field and establish an international safety research network. Nearly six months after the…
More money for the generative AI boom: Y Combinator-backed developer infrastructure startup Recall.ai announced Thursday it has raised a $10 million Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to over…
Uber Technologies announced Tuesday that it will buy the Taiwan unit of Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda for $950 million in cash. The deal is part of Uber Eats’ strategy to expand…
The Series C funding, which brings its total raise to around $95 million, will go toward mass production of the startup’s inaugural products
Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand food delivery service in Thailand, is considering an initial public offering on a Thai exchange or the U.S. in 2025.
Samsung Medison, a medical device unit of Samsung Electronics that specializes in developing diagnostic imaging devices, said on Wednesday it plans to acquire Sonio, a Paris-based startup that makes AI-powered software…
Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that its operating profit surged more than 930% in the first quarter of 2024, driven by soaring demand for its servers, memory chips and storage used…
Carv, a data layer platform that lets web3 gaming and AI companies, as well as gamers, control and monetize their data, has raised a $10 million Series A round led…
Zypsy, a design firm with a track record of helping early-stage startups, has launched a new and somewhat unique venture investment program. It will be offering 10 startups up to…
Layoffs usually drive attention and sympathy toward affected employees, but rarely does anyone talk about what happens to the recruiters who are sometimes also asked to leave when companies decide…
Patlytics, an AI-powered patent analytics platform, wants to help enterprises, IP professionals and law firms speed up their patent workflows, from discovery, analytics, comparisons and prosecution to litigation. The fledgling startup…
Government & Policy
US to award TSMC $6.6B in grants, $5B in loans to step up chip manufacturing in Arizona
TSMC is getting the grant under the CHIPS Act, in the latest step by the U.S. to reshore domestic chip manufacturing.
Full Glass Wine, a brand acquisition management startup that specializes in acquiring wine marketplaces, has raised a $14 million Series A round to continue acquiring DTC (direct-to-consumer) wine marketplaces, aiming…
