Welcome back,
Foodpanda is a major player in Asia, with its Taiwan business alone worth nearly $1 billion. That valuation is according to Uber, which had agreed to buy Foodpanda Taiwan for $950 million. That deal is over, however, after Uber gave up on fighting anti-competitive charges.
That means Foodpanda retains the jewel in its crown, which includes a Southeast Asia business that it has tried to offload with many years but without success. It’s hard for startups in Southeast Asia to get acquired but it is also tough for massive companies like Delivery Hero, Foodpanda’s parent, too.
Elsewhere, this week we look at a European investigation into corrupt lobbying at Huawei, another Chinese startup released a hit AI product and Intel’s new CEO puts Southeast Asia on the map.
That’s all for this week—see you again in the next issue.
Jon
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There’s a lot happening across the food delivery industry across Asia, with Foodpanda continuing to be a major player against the odds.
Uber admitted defeat in its effort to buy Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan—the deal hit regulatory issues after the FTC flagged it as anti-competitive in December. While Uber isn’t paying the full $950 million investment, it is obligated to cover the $250 million termination fee, which will sting to some extent.
Meanwhile, Deliveroo has called it quits on Hong Kong. It will leave the market and sell some assets to Foodpanda, in another inadvertent win for their business.
It’s often quite amusing to see Foodpanda continuing to exist in so many markets in Asia even though it has pushed pretty hard (and fairly publicly) to sell assets across Southeast Asia and beyond.
It sold its India business in 2017 and the year before it looked at giving up other markets in Southeast Asia, but it was not able to find a buyer. Foodpanda often speaks about the growth potential of the region but it was only last year that parent Delivery Hero gave up on selling the Southeast Asia business to an undisclosed third-party which is widely thought to be Grab.
Startups in Southeast Asia are well aware of the difficulty of being acquired. Foodpanda isn’t an exception; it too is intimately familiar with the illiquid nature of the region.
China experienced a “second DeepSeek” moment with the release of Manus, a general AI agent developed by Wuhan-based startup Butterfly Effect.
Manus is said to act like a highly efficient intern, I say “said to” because it is incredibly hard to access with just 1% of its waitlist able to use the product right now. Wired has an express review of using the agent, which was praised widely by figures including Jack Dorsey and the head of product at Hugging Face.
The comparison with DeepSeek comes from the fact that Manus was developed by a startup that has raised just $10 million to date, drastically undercutting the expectation of what it takes to build and ship cutting-edge AI products in today’s market. DeepSeek, it emerged, had taken in other funding as part of its development, but the narrative seems to fit for the Chinese tech industry and it goes something like: “we are not allowed to have the best tools out there, but that challenge means we can build better products.”
Indeed, Tsinghua University and Qingcheng.AI announced an AI inference framework that they claim reduces reliance on Nvidia chips, running instead on China-made chips.
Despite that, Manus probably isn’t DeepSeek Mark II, instead it is yet another reminder that China is very much in the global tech race.
Meanwhile, the DeepSeek effect continues to break out across China. Founder Liang Wenfeng continues to resist the lure of outside investment, instead prioritizing independence for his company over quick profits.
Investors are lining up and getting meetings, however. We know this because The Information reported that the local government is screening potential DeepSeek investors (all must register with local officials before meeting the company) and restricting travel for some employees at the company.
Meanwhile, China has followed the US and EU with a new policy that will require AI-generated content to be labeled from September 1.
Huawei is in deep trouble in Europe after authorities raided 21 locations in Belgium and Portugal as part of a two-year investigation into corruption between the Chinese tech giant and MEPs, members of the European parliament. Huawei is suspected to have bribed politicians in exchange for support, with 15 current of past MEPs under scrutiny.
Gifts such as luxury trips and football matches are said to have been offered in exchange for positive positions, at a time when Huawei’s business was under regulatory pressure across the board from handsets to networking equipment. There is also suspicion that money laundering may have taken place, too.
There have been arrests made and this is a major corruption case to keep an eye on. Huawei has denied knowledge and said it will assist with the investigation.
We are used to seeing India nationals taking up major roles within big tech, but Intel’s new CEO is repping Southeast Asia. Lip-Bu Tan was born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore, but he is a naturalized US citizen after moving Stateside for education. The former investor has a tough job on his hands to reestablish Intel’s struggling business.
Trump says the US government is discussing a potential sale of TikTok to four different groups—Oracle remains a front runner to help run the service link
TikTok US, though, is a lot lighter on top executives with at least 8 major names leaving over the last year following uncertainty around the business link
Alibaba has revamped its Quark AI assistant app with its latest Qwen model, adding chatbot features, deep thinking, and task execution link
China’s food delivery giants are racing to offer social security benefits to workers as government pressure mounts on the industry over labor conditions link
GSR Ventures is the latest investment firm to split its US and China operations—the US side will now be called Informed Ventures link
China’s Full Truck Alliance eyes Hong Kong listing as ‘hedge against US risks’ link
Hesai, China’s top lidar maker plans to open its first overseas plant next year to reduce geopolitical risks link
Pony AI plans to expand its robotaxi fleet to over 1,000 this year and 10,000 within three years, up from 300 currently in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou link
The US FCC is forming a national security council to counter Chinese cyber threats and maintain a lead in critical technologies like AI link
An espionage group operating out of China is targeting routers made by Juniper Networks link
Uber is reportedly in early discussions with EV ride-hailing startup BluSmart for a possible acquisition link
Zepto is looking to increase domestic shareholding with a view towards its widely-reported IPO plans—that could include a $100M-$150M share buyback scheme led by its founders link
Starlink partnered with Airtel, while Reliance Jio struck a similar deal to offer its services in India, pending approval—Jio’s deal came a day after Airtel’s. link, link
Bessemer Venture Partners closed a $350M India fund to invest in AI, SaaS, fintech, health, consumer brands, and cybersecurity link
Xiaomi will preinstall PhonePe’s Indus Appstore on its Android smartphones in India, replacing its own GetApps under a multi-year deal link
LAT Aerospace, a Bengaluru-based startup developing a low-cost short takeoff and landing aircraft for regional travel, raised $20M link
Bangalore is said to be emerging as a key hub for AI talent, attracting Silicon Valley firms looking to accelerate innovation link
Groww, India’s largest stock broking platform, is in talks to acquire PayU-backed Fisdom, a wealthtech startup, for $140-160M link
India’s government has proposed an AI Governance Board to oversee and approve AI applications, ensuring compliance with domestic and global legal standards link
Indian police have arrested the co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the EU and the US, under India’s extradition law link
Trump’s new tariffs impact India but they could strengthen its position in global electronics manufacturing by disadvantaging its primary competitors, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs link
Venture firm 3one4 Capital returns entire first fund capital to sponsors—the 2016 fund claims unrealized gains of 4X with future investments and IPOs expected to raise that link
Cross-border fintech Zolve raises $251M in equity-debt mix link
Grab partnered with four autonomous tech firms—China’s WeRide and Zelos, US-based Motional, and South Korea’s Autonomous A2Z—to double down on self-driving solutions in areas including shuttles, buses, and cars link
The CEO of GoTo said publicly that the company is open to a potential merger with Grab link
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto ordered GoTo and Grab to give holiday bonuses to the 1.7M gig economy drivers in the country based on work activity, with details to be discussed with the Manpower Ministry link
SGX recently made a big push to revitalize its listings and it also plans to list Bitcoin perpetual futures in the second half of 2025 link
Thailand’s SEC has approved the top two stablecoins (USDT and USDC) for trading on digital asset exchanges link
Malaysia’s Capital A, formerly AirAsia, plans to raise external capital for its logistics and digital units link
Salesforce will invest $1B in Singapore over five years to expand its AI platform, strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia link
Oracle is in talks with Indonesia to establish a cloud services center in the country link
Malaysia’s SkyeChip is considering an IPO in the second half of 2025, targeting a valuation above 1 billion ringgit ($226M) link
Singapore prosecutors said a $390 million fraud case involving local firms may have led to US servers being illegally sent to Malaysia—three men are accused of deceiving Dell and Super Micro about the servers’ destination link
Canada’s Cohere, an early AI model developer, is partnering with an LG subsidiary to create localized AI solutions for South Korean businesses link
Samsung SDI will raise $1.4B selling new shares to fund investments in US and European facilities as well as new technologies link
Chipmaker Rapidus enjoys strong government backing for its semiconductor ambitions but struggles to attract private funding link
SoftBank is expanding its AI ambitions in Japan, acquiring Sharp’s Sakai plant in Osaka for $676M to convert it into an AI data center—the move is part of its broader collaboration with OpenAI link
Telco NTT is developing an all-optical network to enable high-speed, uninterrupted data transmission, crucial for AI-driven medical procedures link
Sakana AI admitted its breakthrough was partly due to its AI “cheating” the evaluation system, highlighting the risks of AI assessing AI—the Tokyo-based startup, backed by Nvidia, is revising its findings after engineers flagged flaws, with expected speed gains now far lower than initially claimed link
Foxconn has developed FoxBrain, an in-house AI model with reasoning skills that it claims was trained in just four weeks for data analysis, math, and coding link
TSMC’s revenue surged 39% in the first two months, up from 34% in 2024, driven by strong demand for Nvidia AI chips link
Hong Kong-based crypto payment startup RedotPay raised $40M led by Lightspeed link
Researchers have discovered KoSpy, a new Android spyware linked to North Korean hacking group ScarCruft—disguised as utility apps; it targeted users in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, India, and the Middle East via Google Play and Firebase Firestore. Google has since removed the apps, but the spyware has been active since 2022, with the latest samples found in March 202 link
OKX could reportedly lose MiCA license as EU probes use of its Web3 tools to launder Bybit hack funds link
