News

September 7, 2021 By Krishna N. Das NEW DELHI (Reuters) – As COVID-19 cases and deaths exploded in India in April and May, New Delhi’s premier Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and several others ran so short of oxygen that many patients in the capital suffocated https://ift.tt/3yP7V7U. When Reuters visited the hospital on Friday, its last […]

Francophone Africa has its first unicorn, and if you’ve been following tech on the continent, you will be very unsurprised to hear that it’s coming from the world of fintech. Wave, a U.S. and Senegal-based mobile money provider, has raised $200 million in Series A round of funding. The investment is the largest-ever Series A […]

BP Ventures, the investing arm of oil and gas giant BP, has announced a €10 million (~$11.9 million) investment in Ryd, a German in-car digital payments provider. The fresh funds will help Ryd expand its service into international markets and build out its offering, according to a statement. Ryd’s service allows users to lump together […]

September 7, 2021 By Fanny Potkin SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Sea Ltd’s Shopee is preparing to launch in Poland and is currently recruiting sellers, two company sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The move will be the first expansion into European e-commerce for the $190 billion Singapore-headquartered technology group, whose gaming arm Garena is […]

September 7, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom struck a share-swap deal with Softbank to increase its stake in U.S. unit T-Mobile and sold its Dutch unit in a major restructuring of interests that strengthens the German group’s transatlantic focus. As a result of the two deals announced on Tuesday, Deutsche Telekom will raise its […]

September 7, 2021 By Sakura Murakami TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has announced he would not seek a second term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, setting the stage for a new prime minister following a Sept. 29 party leadership vote. So far lawmakers such as former foreign minister Fumio […]

September 7, 2021 By Simon Evans MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – FIFA is investigating the abandonment of the Brazil-Argentina World Cup qualifier with its president Gianni Infantino labelling the events “crazy”, while Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly ready to take disciplinary action against their Argentine players. Brazilian health authorities intervened on Sunday after accusing four Argentine Premier […]

September 7, 2021 By Anthony Esposito and Nelson Renteria SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a real-world experiment proponents say will lower commission costs for billions of dollars sent home from abroad but which critics warned may fuel money laundering. […]

September 7, 2021 ZURICH (Reuters) – Adecco Group is buying QAPA, France’s second-largestprovider of digital workforce solutions, for an initial consideration of 65 million euros ($77.2 million), the Swiss staffing group said on Tuesday. QAPA had 45 million euros in turnover in the 12 months to the end of June 2021 and has around 60 […]

Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber is in advanced stages of talks to raise a new financing round at up to $2 billion in valuation, several sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. If the talks materialize in a deal, CoinSwitch Kuber will become the second crypto startup in the world’s second largest internet market to […]

September 7, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, his support ratings in tatters ahead of a general election, said last week he would step down, setting the stage for his replacement as premier and heightening uncertainty on the outlook for economic policy. Below are the key economic policy views of candidates to […]

September 7, 2021 BEIJING (Reuters) – British sportscar maker Lotus plans to open up to 70 showrooms in China by 2024 and start production at its new Wuhan factory next year to ramp up competition with rival Porsche, Chief Executive Feng Qingfeng told Reuters on Tuesday. Premium and luxury car sales are growing in China […]

September 7, 2021 By Tom Sims FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German regulators have launched an investigation into the country’s biggest financial company, Allianz, after the demise of some of its U.S. investment funds last year, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The move heightens the pressure on the insurer, which is already facing […]

September 7, 2021 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Venezuelan government and opposition representatives on Monday said they reached partial agreement during talks in Mexico City as part of a roadmap drawn up to tackle the once prosperous country’s long-running crisis. In a joint statement following negotiations from Sept. 3-6, they said areas of agreement related to […]

Financial services, especially those for people who don’t have access to traditional bank accounts or lines of credit, are proliferating in Southeast Asia. Jeff App wants to give consumers a “super app” where they can compare many financial products and apply for them using the startup’s proprietary data-scoring models. For service providers, Jeff serves as […]

Every startup founder faces the same issue — how do you manage your cap table and equity plans in a transparent and lightweight manner? If you’re based in the U.S., chances are you’re using an equity management solution like Carta. But if you’re not based in the U.S., you don’t have a ton of options. […]

September 7, 2021 By Josh Horwitz and Sophie Yu SHANGHAI (Reuters) – In glass-paneled conference rooms, members of the Shanghai-based esports team Rogue Warriors tap away at their phones as they train from 11 a.m. till late, occasionally breaking for food. “I spend 15 of 24 hours a day playing video games,” says 19-year-old Zhang […]

September 7, 2021 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor George Soros said BlackRock Inc investing billions of dollars into China now is a “mistake” and will likely lose money for the asset manager’s clients, according to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Last month, BlackRock became the first foreign asset manager to operate a wholly […]

September 7, 2021 BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s exports unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in August, as solid global demand offset some of the pressure on the world’s second-biggest economy from a resurgence of domestic COVID-19 cases and supply bottlenecks. China staged an impressive recovery from a coronavirus-battered slump, but economic momentum has weakened recently […]

September 7, 2021 SYDNEY (Reuters) – COVID-19 daily infections in Sydney fell for a third straight day on Tuesday but still lingered near record levels as the outbreak spurred a spike in vaccination rates in the hard-hit western suburbs of Australia’s largest city. Officials have promised residents in Sydney, the epicenter of Australia’s worst coronavirus […]