Lazada is betting on logistics to win Southeast Asia

1. Grab invests in Silicon Valley’s Drive.ai with plans to expand into Singapore 

Drive.ai has raised the total of $77 million since it was founded, it recently announced the plan to supply self-driving vehicles for Lyft’s ride-hailing network.

Drive.ai isn’t the first autonomous tech developer to take an interest in Singapore. Grab already has a pilot program there with nuTonomy.

Read the full story here. 

2. Lazada is betting on logistics to win Southeast Asia

Delivery and partnerships will go on to become Lazada’s competitive advantage to ace the logistics side of the growing ecommerce demand in Southeast Asia.

The marketplace has partnered with numerous companies like Ninjavan and Go-Jek for delivery. It currently has 130 distribution centers and 14 warehouses across the region, with plans to open 6 more.

Lazada claims to be the only one to have an open-network approach combining infrastructure and partners.

Last November, Lazada bought Singapore online grocer Redmart, with the hope that it will help to crack cold storage and expand groceries into the rest of the region.

Read the full story here. 

3. Following China, South Korea announced the ban on ICO 

South Korea becomes the second nation in Asia after China to prohibit Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in the country due to the potential for financial scams.

Regulations imposed in China have led to Korea representing an increasing portion of global cryptocurrency trading. The value of bitcoin went down 3% within 24 hours after Korea’s announcement.

Regulators across the world, including the US, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK, have warned companies contemplating an ICO that they may violate securities laws; and the investors to lose money.

Read the full story here. 

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