CEOs make their exits, an update on SoftBank’s plans to invest in Uber, and more
High profile departures
Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp is departing the company – Mashable
Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp has announced his resignation from the company. Going forward, Jeff D’Onofrio, President and COO of Tumblr, will lead Tumblr.
Karp founded the company nearly 11 years ago with developer Marco Arment. The platform now has over 380 million blogs and over 155 billion posts.
In 2013, Yahoo acquired Tumblr for nearly US$1.1 billion. However, the platform fell short of its sales projections, and the company’s value had to be written by nearly half.
President of Uber Japan is leaving the company – Bloomberg
The President of Uber Japan Masami Takahashi is leaving the ride-hailing giant, Uber has confirmed. He will reportedly join US-based co-working operator WeWork after that.
The development comes as WeWork prepares to expand into Japan, with three locations in downtown Tokyo when it debuts. It plans to launch up to 20 locations in the city.
Uber has steamrolled traditional taxi firms in many other cities across the world, but in Tokyo, it commands less than 1 per cent of all taxi rides per month.
Investments
SoftBank offers to buy Uber shares at a discount – Wall Street Journal
SoftBank is offering to buy at Uber shares at about 30 per cent discount of the company’s US$68 billion valuation.
The Japanese conglomerate is aiming to acquire at least 14 per cent of the company — consisting of shares from existing employees and existing investors — at a valuation of US$48 billion. It will also invest around US$1 billion in the company at its previous — higher — valuation.
SoftBank will officially declare its offer on Tuesday. Sellers will have 20 business days to agree or decline the offer.
SaaS startup TempoGo wins Startup-O competition – Press Release
TempoGO, an India-based IoT and SaaS fleet management startup, has won an international startup competition held by Singapore-based investment platform Startup-O.
As part of their award, TempoGO will receive US$250,000 in seed investment from Singapore-managed seed capital fund Javelin Startup-O Victory Fund.
This raises TempoGO’s total funding to date to over US$1.35 million.
Heavily focused on the transportation sector, TempoGO’s solution caters to both the passenger commercial vehicle and goods transport segments. Transportation companies can integrate TempoGO’s APIs, which allow them to monitor all vehicles and integrate location-based features into their solutions.
Go-Jek reportedly invests in Bangladeshi counterpart Pathao – e27
Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn Go-Jek has invested “around US$2 million” in a Series A funding round for Bangladeshi logistics and ride-hailing startup Pathao, according to DealstreetAsia.
Citing anonymous sources, the report said that the deal has been closed “a few weeks back” and that Go-Jek has taken a minority stake as Pathao was not willing to share majority holding of the company.
Pathao began as an on-demand delivery service but pivoted to specialise in delivery service for e-commerce companies.
Fatfish invests in Australian cryptocurrency exchange – e27
Southeast Asia- and Australia-based Fatfish Internet Group (FFG) has agreed to invest US$1 million seed capital in Kryptos-X, a yet-to-be launched online cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore.
Kryptos-X is being founded well-known Australian entrepreneur Tony Mackay, who has earlier founded Chi-X Europe and Global, two alternative stock-trading platforms with operations across Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
Also Read: The alarming environmental impact of Bitcoin mining
The proposed transaction will see FFG and Mackay enter into a joint venture arrangement. FFG will be issued with preference shares in the capital of the holding company, which will own and operate the online exchange and marketplace.
Expansion
Singapore cross-border payment platform InstaReM has expanded into Malaysia — Press Release
Singapore-based cross-border e-payments startup InstaReM has announced it has expanded into Malaysia.
Individual and corporate customers in Malaysia will now be able to enjoy cross-border money transfers to over 60 countries across the globe. They will have to pay only a transfer fee based on a small percentage of the amount transferred.
InstaReM also recently expanded to the European Union, opening of an office in Lithuania in September 2017. InstaReM will also start its India operations in December 2017, following recent approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
In July this year, the company raised US$13 million in a Series B round led by GSR Ventures, with participation from SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund (SBI-FMO Fund), Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), and Global Founders Capital (GFC).
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