Carro is Singapore’s latest unicorn following latest funding round

On Tuesday, Southeast Asian online automotive marketplace Carro said, it has raised $360 million in its latest funding round that was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, becoming the region’s latest unicorn. “The valuation for the company is well over a billion dollars,” said Carro, Aaron Tan, the CEO and founder of Singapore-headquartered Carro. Carro…

Huawei forays into designing chips for the smart vehicle sector

According to four sources with knowledge of the matter at hand, embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies is expanding its smart car partnership with state-owned Chongqing Changan Automobile Co Ltd to include the design and development of semiconductors for the auto sector. In the last 6 months both companies have been collaborating informally on designing…

Digital music company Believe aims to raise $608M through its Paris stock market listing

On Monday, digital music company Believe stated it plans to come out with a stock market listing in Paris with an aim to raise around $608 million (500 million euros) so as to finance its expansion. Believe’s digital music brands,  Believe Distribution Services, TuneCore, Groove Attack, Nuclear Blast, Naïve, and AllPoints, compete in a sector…

France’s Air Liquide partners with Itochu Corp to develop hydrogen mobility markets in Japan

On Friday, in a statement French industrial gas giant Air Liquide said, it has entered into a collaboration with Japan’s Itochu Corp, a trading house, to further develop the hydrogen mobility markets in Japan. Initially, both companies will focus on the development of hydrogen retail infrastructure in Japan for both commercial and for passenger vehicles,…

Ride hailing service provider Bolt to invest $118M in European e-scooter market in 2021

On Thursday, Estonia-based ride-hailing service provider Bolt stated, it has decided to invest $118 million in 2021 and has set a goal to become the biggest e-scooter rental company in Europe. The development comes at a time when cab services have been severely affected by the coronavirus-induced COVID19 pandemic. As part of this strategy Bolt…

U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic LLC and SoftBank Group Corp invests $107 million in Brazilian facial recognition startup Acesso Digital

In a statement Brazil’s facial biometrics and digital admission startup Acesso Digital said, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic LLC are leading a $107.25 million (580 million reais) funding round. Following the investment, both, General Atlantic and SoftBank, will hold a minority stake in Acesso Digital. Founded in 2007, Acesso…