Also, Grab acquires iKaaz, and MaGIC has new partners.
China’s JD.com targets US$2 billion fundraising – [Reuters]
JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce firm, kicked off a fundraising round at its logistics unit. JD Logistics, valued at around US$10 billion, has invited a select group of investors to participate in the round that is targeting US$2 billion.
The fundraising would allow JD Logistics to offer its service to third-party clients. According to report sources, Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital China will likely lead the round.
MaGIC inks partnership with Accenture, MIMOS, and Think City – [Press release]
Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Accenture, Think City and MIMOS Berhad to drive collaboration and active involvement in Malaysia’s entrepreneurship development as part of MaGIC’s Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility (CER) network.
According to MaGIC Chief Executive Officer Ashran Dato Ghaz, this partnership will allow them to leverage their “CER partners’ knowledge, technical expertise, and industry experience, to create innovation superclusters that are well-positioned to drive growth and seize opportunity 10, 20, even 30 years from now.”
First announced during the Global Entrepreneurship Community 2017, innovation superclusters is an initiative by the MaGIC CER Network to create an open and collaborative environment for startups, corporates, academics, and the government that aim to nurture innovation in industries that will drive growth in the future such as smart city, agro-tech, digital health, mobility, and clean energy.
Grab acquires Bangalore-based payments startup iKaaz – [e27]
Launched in 2014, iKaaz is a platform that integrates a range of payment tech as such as NFC, QR-code, audio-based payments as well as bill payments, online payments and P2P. It was built to solve the pain points of India’s unbanked population.
Japan and Taiwan ties at second in Thomson Reuters top 100 global tech leaders list – Reuters
Thomson Reuters published its debut Top 100 Global Technology Leaders list – a list that “aims to identify the industry’s top financially successful and organisationally sound organization”.
Out of the 100 tech companies, 45 per cent are headquartered in the United States. Japan and Taiwan ties at second place with 13 companies each, with Taiwan’s microchip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing featuring in the top 10. India follows with five tech companies in the list. Microsoft Corp. tops the list.
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