SoftBank wires US$1.5B to WeWork before cash runs out [Bloomberg]
WeWork said it received an early payment of US$1.5 billion from SoftBank Group, as the co-working company was weeks away from running out of money.
As a result, a slate of governance changes went into effect Wednesday, including the replacement of co-founder Adam Neumann as chairman and the assignment of five board seats to SoftBank, which will take a majority stake. WeWork also said it appointed a new independent director to the board, Jeff Sine, co-founder of financial firm Raine Group.
“This financing package enables the company to accelerate the path to profitability,” Marcelo Claure, WeWork’s new executive chairman, said in a statement.
Child Health Imprints raises US$2.3M in pre-Series A funding [press release]
Child Health Imprints (CHIL), a Singapore-based company focusing on neonatal-clinical care improvement, today announced that it has raised US$2.4 million in pre-Series A funding, led by HealthXCapital, with participation from Enterprise SG and other HNIs.
CHIL is engaged in the development and application of cutting-edge informational and computational technologies including IoT, Artificial Intelligence and predictive analytics to the practice of medicine in neonatal intensive care units across the world with the objective of making an early diagnosis of critical diseases and improving the overall quality of healthcare which is being provided to neonates.
The CHIL cloud platform (iNICU) also integrates laboratory results, and bedside clinical observations. It then analyses the data in medically comprehensive formats leveraging Machine Learning and Deep Learning technologies, which
enhances the overall quality of healthcare provided to neonates in NICUs. Post-discharge of baby from NICU, discharge data is pushed into iCHR (integrated Child Health Record). It automates growth monitoring, prescription and lab investigations, vaccination record & scheduler for the child.
MX Player raises US$110M from Tencent, Times Internet [press release]
MX Player, a video player and video OTT platform in India, has received US$110 million in fresh funding from Tencent and Times Internet. The deal marks Tencent’s second investment into a Times Internet asset, after it invested in Gaana, the music streaming platform, in 2018.
Since its formal OTT launch in February 2019, MX Player claims to have bagged over 175 million monthly active users in India and over 275 million monthly active users worldwide. Its OTT service is now live in 5 countries.
In 2018, Times Internet acquired a majority stake in MX Player, which was then a video playback app, from Chinese mobile games firm Zenjoy, which continues to be a shareholder.
Singapore’s ST Telemedia leads US$40M funding in Big Data firm Datameer [DealStreetAsia]
Temasek-backed investor ST Telemedia had led a US$40-million funding round in Datameer, a San Francisco-based big data analytics and visualisation company that seeks to build out its global sales and engineering capabilities.
In a statement, Datameer said its existing investor ST Telemedia was joined by shareholders Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Nextworld Capital, Citi Ventures, and Top Tier Capital Partners in the funding round.
The company said it will use the fresh funding to expand its capabilities in the enterprise data preparation and exploration market and to finance the market introduction of its Neebo solution. Neebo is a cloud-native self-service solution that allows teams of analytics and data scientists to create, discover, use and share trusted assets in hybrid landscapes, Datameer said.
Mitsui to manufacture electric vehicle motors in India [press release]
Mitsui & Co. plans to build a US$14 million plant to manufacture electric vehicle (EV) motors in India, in partnership with leading Taiwanese motor manufacturer TECO Electric & Machinery.
The plant, in Bengaluru, Karnataka state, is expected to commence full production by the end of next year, generating 110,000 high-efficiency motors per year.
The investment is being made by a joint venture, TEMICO, set up in April 2018 by Mitsui (40 per cent) and TECO (60 per cent) to pursue the development, manufacturing, and sales of EV motors and EV powertrains globally.
Shinichiro Omachi, Managing Director of Mitsui & Co. India said: “The plant creates 200 jobs and will contribute to the growth of India’s EV industry, local manufacturing and reducing air pollution. Sustainability and mobility are key growth areas for Mitsui and we are investing more in EV businesses as the world moves towards a low-carbon society.”
The joint venture will establish a local company, TEMICO India, to build the plant, which will produce EV traction motor for electric vehicles.
The plant is Mitsui’s second major EV venture in India following its investment in SmartE, India’s first and largest three-wheeler electric mobility service, in July.
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