Asia

Anthill Ventures, an India-based venture capital firm and speed-scaling ecosystem, has on Thursday announced the launch of a new cohort for its Lumos Health program, which is designed for startups with disruptive solutions and health technologies.

SoftBank Corp., a Japan-based telecom and IT operator, has on Monday announced it launched its own artificial intelligence (AI) Chat service for internal use. As of May 29, 2023, the generative AI service is available to all SoftBank employees, a workforce of approximately 20,000 people.

Japanese multinational investment firm SoftBank Corp has partnered with American multinational technology company NVIDIA on a pioneering platform for generative artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G/6G applications that is based on the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper™ Superchip and which SoftBank plans to roll out at new, distributed AI data centers across Japan.

The agrifoodtech startup ecosystem in India mirrored the global slump in venture capital funding in 2022, with funding dropped 33 percent to $2.4 billion in 2022, from $3.6 billion in 2021, a report showed last week.

XFlow, an India-based financial services and infrastructure company, has on Thursday announced that it has raised a Pre-Series A round of $10.2 million. The round was led by Square Peg with participation from Moore Strategic Ventures and existing investors Lightspeedand General Catalyst.

CompareAsia Group Capital Limited (MoneyHero), a Singapore and Hong Kong-based financial products platform, is planning to go public in partnership with Bridgetown Holdings Limited, a special purpose acquisition company formed as a collaboration between Pacific Century Group and Thiel Capital LLC.

South Korean automobile firm Hyundai Motor Group and battery company LG Energy Solution (LGES) have announced an electric vehicle (EV) battery cell manufacturing joint venture in the United States on Friday.

Sequoia-backed Circles has on Thursday announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi-headquartered telco firm telco firm e& international for digital services across its operating markets and beyond.

Metalpha Technology Holding Ltd, a Hong Kong crypto-based wealth management company, has on Thursday announced its Next Generation Fund I, formed in partnership with NextGen Digital Venture Limited, has secured a $5 million anchor investment from the world’s leading crypto company.

Gogoro Inc., the Taiwan-based technology firm in battery swapping ecosystems, has on Wednesday announced it was expanding its partnership with Bikebank in South Korea. The companies will introduce Gogoro smartscooters and battery swapping to Korean consumers in the third quarter of 2023 under the Dotstation brand, expanding their battery swapping network to…