Also, SAIF Partners closes US$350 million fund, DiDi partners Taxify, Telco giant XL Axiata considers new investment in its JV and more

Line set to launches taxi-booking service in Bangkok

Line Thailand is set to launch a taxi-booking feature its on-demand delivery platform Line Man, according to a report by The Bangkok Post.

This service is expected to be officially rolled out this year with a fleet of at least 20,000 taxis and will serve Bangkok. About 3,000 taxis are already trialling the service. Each booking will come with a THB20 (US$0.60) calling fee.

Line Man will be partnering with the city’s leading taxi company Bangkok Taxi Cooperative Network to roll out the service. The company oversees over 60,000 taxis, which make up 60 per cent of the total number of taxis in Bangkok.

Line Man currently already offers grocery, food, courier and postal delivery services.

O2O platform Fave integrates Alipay

Southeast Asia’s O2O platform Fave (formerly known as Groupon Malaysia) has partnered with Alibaba’s e-payment juggernaut Ant Financial.

Fave will integrate Ant’s payment platform Alipay, which will allow Alipay users to pay for deals on Fave’s platform using the Alipay app. These deals include over 10,000 restaurants, spas and other offline retailers span across three markets, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Currently, Alipay has over 520 million users, while Fave has over 1 million users.

Also Read: Southeast Asian O2O company Fave Group acquires Groupon Singapore

“By partnering with innovators like Fave, we are giving Chinese travellers the safe, efficient and convenient payment services that they are used to at home,” said Dayong Zhang, Head of Southeast Asia, Alipay.

DiDi partners Taxify

Chinese ride-hailing titan DiDi has partnered with Europe- and Middle East-based ride-hailing service Taxify.

Under this partnership, DiDi will invest in and collaborate with Taxify to support the latter’s further growth and innovation in various markets.

“Taxify will utilise this partnership to solidify our position in core markets in Europe and Africa. We believe DiDi is the best partner to help us become the most popular and efficient transport option in Europe & Africa,” said Markus Villig, Founder and CEO of Taxify.

Launched in Estonia in 2013, Taxify serves over 2.5 million users in major hubs across 18 countries, including Hungary, Romania, the Baltic States, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

DiDi, on the other hand, serves over 400 million users in more than 400 cities. In August 2016, it acquired Uber China.

Chin Chao becomes interim CEO of InnoVen Capital India

Chin Chao, the InnoVen Capital CEO for Southeast Asia and Singapore, has been appointed interim CEO for the VC’s India chapter.

The leadership positions for InnoVen Capital India were left empty when its CEO and deputy CEO, Ajay Hattangdi and Vinod Murali, departed to start their own VC last month, according to a report by DealStreetAsia.

Also Read: AMA with Chin Chao of InnoVen Capital

InnoVen Capital is a venture debt firm supported by Temasek Holdings and UOB Group. To date, it has backed over 100 startups to the tune of over US$225 million.

SAIF Partners has a new US$350 million fund

India VC SAIF Partners has closed a new fund carrying US$350 million, according to a report by TechCrunch. This will be SAIF Partners’ sixth fund.

Verticals including logistics, fintech, SaaS, content and IoT will be areas of interest for the new fund.

SAIF Partners has several notable startups under its portfolio, including e-commerce platform Paytm, food delivery service Swiggy, service marketplace UrbanClap and ticketing portal Bookmyshow.

XL Axiata mulling investment in Elevenia

Telco giant XL Axiata is considering injecting more cash into e-commerce platform Elevenia, reported CNN Indonesia.

According to XL Axiata Managing Director Dian Siswarini, the management was not able to give further details at the moment, though she promised to disclose it when “the time comes.”

“Amazon is entering [the market], so we have to see how the competition is going to be like,” she said.

Founded in 2013, Elevenia is a joint venture between XL Axiata and South Korean telco SK Planet.

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Image Credit: Line Thailand

Additional reporting by Anisa Menur.

The post Captain’s Log, Aug 1: Line set to launch taxi-booking service in Thailand, O2O platform Fave links up with Alipay appeared first on e27.