Also, Udemy expands to Indonesia, Grab raises US$1.46 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund
Beam joins forces with foodpanda to bring variety to delivery options [Press Release]
Singapore-based mobility sharing startup Beam has announced its partnership with meal delivery service foodpanda. The move is aimed to provide more food delivery options for its riders.
The partnership will see that Beam provides twenty of its e-scooters for the three-month trial phase, in which foodpanda’s riders will be given an exclusive code to unlock the available vehicle to deliver food. The twenty e-scooters will be housed and charged at a central location on a daily basis by trained foodpanda staff, and Beam will monitor and maintain the quality and rideability of the vehicles.
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“Working together, Beam and foodpanda seek to give riders new ways to provide their services, in hopes that customers will get their food faster and more efficiently,” said Mark Inkster, Chief Business Officer for Beam.
Edutech Udemy expands to Indonesia [Press Release]
E-learning platform Udemy announced that it will support the development of teaching and learning process in Indonesia. In doing so, Udemy has entered the country and said that it will help both local instructors and students improve learnings.
Udemy’s program that will support the said learning process in the country will feature learning content in Indonesian language, localised platform both website and Android or iOS apps, payment method through bank transfer or by local partners such as Alfamart, Alfamidi, or Lawson, as well as setting up, in mini studio in Jakarta, as the first Udemy studio in Asia.
Udemy connects students all over the world to instructors to develop skills and knowledge in any topics that can be done everywhere on any time. In December 2018, Udemy has recorded a total of 30 million students with 35,000 new courses across the globe.
“Our purpose is not only to focus to the people who are eager to learn, but to also assist the instructors to create quality content. We’re hopeful that our production studio in Jakarta will empower local instructors to share their knowledge and create a course on Udemy. We believe that the best teachers aren’t always found in classrooms and we look forward to having many talented local instructors join us,” said Giri Suhardi, Market Manager for Indonesia.
Grab secures US$1.46B from SoftBank Vision Fund [e27]
Ride-hailing behemoth Grab announced a US$1.46 billion investment from Softbank Vision Fund. This latest funding put Grab’s total financing to over US$4.5 billion in its Series H round.
Other named investors in this round are Toyota Motor Corporation, Oppenheimer Funds, Hyundai Motor Group, Booking Holdings, Microsoft Corporation, Ping An Capital, and Yamaha Motor.
Grab said that it intends to use the funds to “advance its super app vision” in Southeast Asia, that will include expanding its verticals –financial services, food delivery, parcel delivery, content, and digital payments– and roll out new services announced in 2018.
Built on GrabPlatform, these services include on-demand video (in partnership with HOOQ), digital healthcare (in partnership with Ping An Good Doctor), insurance (in partnership with ZhongAn International), and hotel bookings (in partnership with Booking Holdings).
The company noted that it will continue to invest in Indonesia, particularly by expanding GrabFood and GrabExpress as well as introducing new verticals in the market.
Sea Group reportedly seeks to raise US$1.5B to back Shopee [e27]
Sea Group, the Nasdaq-listed umbrella company of Shopee, Garena, and Airpay, just announced today that it is seeking to raise US$1.5 billion. The group said that the funding will be “for business expansion and other general corporate purposes”.
The amount of the funding will likely be invested into Shopee, the group’s number one business unit, as reported by TechCrunch
Sea Group will issued 60 million Class A shares, which amounts to US$1.35 billion, in an underwritten public offering. It also plans to sell 9 million shares to the underwriters, which brings the total amount they are hoping to raise to US$1.5 billion.
It is planning to sell each share for US$22.50 and will close the offering on March 8 (Friday). The company’s current stock price is hovering around US$24 per share after it enjoyed a 48 per cent spike (from US$16.20) when it released its Q4 and Year-end financial results.
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Image Credit: Udemy
The post Today’s top tech news, March 6, 2019: Beam partners foodpanda for delivery diversification appeared first on e27.