Also, Indonesian property portal UrbanIndo rebrands to 99.co, Bengaluru-based health tech startup HealthPlix raises Series A funding, and more

Alibaba to become Starbucks’ coffee delivery partner in China – [Reuters]

Chinese internet giant Alibaba is in talks to become Starbucks’ coffee delivery partner in China, according to a report by Reuters. Earlier this month, the American coffee retailer’s CEO, Howard Schultz, hinted at a possible collaboration with Jack Ma, Alibaba’s Co-founder and CEO.

An official unveiling of the deal is expected to take place later this week, the report said, citing the Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks has experienced a decline in sales in recent months. It blamed a crackdown on unauthorised third-party deliveries as well as rapid expansion of its own stores, which lead to cannibalisation, for the slowdown. There is also increasing competition from domestic players such as Luckin.

 UOB partners with Carousell to offer car financing service – [TODAYonline]

United Overseas Bank (UOB) is partnering with Singapore-based classifieds platform Carousell to offer digital car financing services, said a report by TODAYonline.

Under the partnership, consumers on Carousell will be able to select from around 10,000 new and used cars then apply for the UOB car loan option on the same platform. This additional service will help reduce the loan application process from three working days to a mere 15 minutes.

Bengaluru-based health tech startup HealthPlix raises Series A funding – [press release]

Bengaluru-based health tech startup HealthPlix has raises US$3 million in a Series A round led by IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital.

The company will use the funds to strengthen its doctor assistance technologies and expand its team and services in other geographical markets.

Also Read: Asian healthtech industry deploys US$3.3B in H1 2018, exceeds 2017 total funding: Report

Co-founded by Raghuraj Sunder Raju, Sandeep Gudibanda and Prasad Basavaraj, its platform aims to drive better health outcomes by assisting doctors and hospitals digitally through its assistive-AI driven EMR (Electronic Medical Records).

HealthPlix claims that currently 1.2 million unique patients are treated by doctors in 150 cities across 20 states using the HealthPlix EMR.

Bank Indonesia expects to standardise QR code payments by year end – [The Jakarta Post]

Bank Indonesia (BI) is working towards standardising its QR code payments, and is expected to complete this by the end of the year, according to The Jakarta Post.

The central bank is currently trialling its new standardised QR code payment system with several payment providers. It is expected to be integrated into the National Payment Gateway (GPN) and would be supported by four local switching companies, ATM Bersama, Prima, ALTO and Link.

Indonesian property portal UrbanIndo rebrands to 99.co – [e27]

Indonesia-based property portal UrbanIndo will be rebranded into 99.co, following acquisition by the Singapore-based proptech company in February 2018.

The rebranding process will be implemented in stages and will take effect on August 1. The UrbanIndo website will be housed under the www.99.co/id domain. It will also incorporate 99.co’s brand identities such as its blue colour scheme and map-based search function.

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