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GGV Capital no longer exists as the partners announce two separate brands

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The VCs, who had future GGV Capital, a 24-year-old cross-border firm that helped serve as a bridge between the U.S. and China, opted for two recent brands about six months after announcing they’d split their U.S. and Asia operations.

Seasoned investors Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo have just renamed their Singapore-based company to Granite Asiaas first reported in Forbes. Meanwhile, Hans Tung, the company’s co-founder who lives in the Bay Area, announced on X yesterday that the American team is now arrange A noteworthy capital.

GGV Capital announced last fall that it was splitting its team amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, though it never cited the atmosphere as an explicit factor driving the move.

Sequoia Capital similarly split its business last 12 months amid geopolitical tensions. In the case of Sequoia, the American team maintained the existing brand Sequoia India & Southeast Asia was renamed Peak XV Partners and Sequoia China was renamed HongShan, which suggests redwood in Mandarin.

According to a source conversant in the matter, the pondering behind abandoning the GGV Capital brand was that since the two teams would operate individually in the future, they felt it will be best to develop recent brands.

Granite Asia is run by native Singaporeans Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo. Lee often appears on Forbes’ Midas list of top-performing VCs, with nine IPOs in the past five years, including smartphone giant Xiaomi and software development company Kingsoft WPS, which went public in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Foo, who previously served as global managing director of GGV Capital, is meanwhile credited with deals including electric automotive maker Xpeng Motors, which went public in 2020; transportation giant Didi, which reportedly plans to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange this 12 months; and the delivery company Grab, whose shares have been underperforming because it entered public trading through a special purpose vehicle at the end of 2021. (Talks were reportedly held recently last month merge with one other beleaguered rival, GoTo Group.)

Granite Asia will deal with startups in China, Japan, South Asia, Australia and Southeast Asia.

Oren Yunger, the newest member of GGV Capital, also stays on the Notable team. Yunger joined GGV as an investor in 2018 and was promoted to managing director last fall.

Another long-time managing director of GGV Capital, Shanghai-based Eric Xu, will proceed to oversee the original company’s independently managed yuan-denominated funds.

About 2.5 years ago, GGV Capital announced it had raised $2.5 billion for its recent funds, marking its largest-ever fund family. Investors have since split the assets under management together with the previously raised capital, in order that Granite Asia now manages a complete of $5 billion, leaving Notable Capital with roughly $4.2 billion based on assets under management by GGV Capital at the time the split was announced.


This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Revolut will introduce mortgage loans, smart ATMs and business lending products

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Revolutthe London-based fintech unicorn shared several elements of the corporate’s 2025 roadmap at a company event in London on Friday. One of the corporate’s important goals for next yr will be to introduce an AI-enabled assistant that will help its 50 million customers navigate financial apps, manage money and customize software.

Considering that artificial intelligence is at the middle of everyone’s attention, this move shouldn’t be surprising. But an AI assistant could actually help differentiate Revolut from traditional banking services, which have been slower to adapt to latest technologies.

When Revolut launched its app almost 10 years ago, many individuals discovered the concept of debit cards with real-time payment notifications. Users may lock the cardboard from the app.

Many banks now can help you control your card using your phone. However, they’re unlikely to supply AI features that might be useful yet.

In addition to the AI ​​assistant, Revolut announced that it will introduce branded ATMs to the market. These will end in money being spent (obviously), but in addition cards – which could encourage latest sign-ups.

Revolut said it plans so as to add facial recognition features to its ATMs in the longer term, which could help with authentication without using the same old card and PIN protocol. It will be interesting to see the way it implements this technology in a way that complies with European Union data protection regulations, which require explicit consent to make use of biometric data for identification purposes.

According to the corporate, Revolut ATMs will start appearing in Spain in early 2025.

Revolut has had a banking license in Europe for a while, which implies it may offer lending products to its retail customers. It already offers bank cards and personal loans in some countries.

Now the corporate plans to expand into mortgage loans – some of the popular lending products in Europe – with an emphasis on speed. If it’s an easy request, customers should generally expect immediate approval and a final offer inside one business day. However, mortgages are rarely easy, so it will be interesting to see if Revolut overpromises.

It appears that the mortgage market rollout will be slow. Revolut said it was starting in Lithuania, with Ireland and France expected to follow suit. Although all these premieres are scheduled for 2025.

Finally, Revolut intends to expand its business offering in Europe with its first loan products and savings accounts. In the payments space, it will enable business customers to supply “buy now, pay later” payment options.

Revolut will introduce Revolut kiosks with biometric payments especially for restaurants and stores.

If all these features seem overwhelming, it’s because Revolut is consistently committed to product development, rolling out latest features quickly. And 2025 looks no different.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is leaving PhonePe’s board

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Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stepped down three-quarters from PhonePe’s board after making an identical move on the e-commerce giant.

Bengaluru-based PhonePe said it has appointed Manish Sabharwal, executive director at recruitment and human resources firm Teamlease, as an independent director and chairman of the audit committee.

Bansal played a key role in Flipkart’s acquisition of PhonePe in 2016 and has since served on the fintech’s board. The Walmart-backed startup, which operates India’s hottest mobile payment app, spun off from Flipkart in 2022 and was valued at $12 billion in funding rounds that raised about $850 million last 12 months.

Bansal still holds about 1% of PhonePe. Neither party explained why they were leaving the board.

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Binny Bansal for being one of the first and staunchest supporters of PhonePe,” Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said in a press release. His lively involvement, strategic advice and private mentoring have profoundly enriched our discussions. We will miss Binny!”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The company is currently developing washing machines for humans

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Forget about cold baths. Washing machines for people may soon be a brand new solution.

According to at least one Japanese the oldest newspapersOsaka-based shower head maker Science has developed a cockpit-shaped device that fills with water when a bather sits on a seat in the center and measures an individual’s heart rate and other biological data using sensors to make sure the temperature is good. “It also projects images onto the inside of the transparent cover to make the person feel refreshed,” the power says.

The device, dubbed “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (the human washing machine of the longer term), may never go on sale. Indeed, for now the company’s plans are limited to the Osaka trade fair in April, where as much as eight people will have the option to experience a 15-minute “wash and dry” every day after first booking.

Apparently a version for home use is within the works.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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