India’s Rapido raises $240M more to intensify its fight with Uber
Plus Nvidia restarts China sales, blockbuster funding for India chip startup and more
Welcome back,
The ride-hailing industry might seem to be a foregone conclusion given how the market has matured and consolidated across the world, but disruptors can still be found. Take Rapido in India, which is said to be ahead of rivals Uber and Ola, raised $240 million at a $2 billion valuation led by big-hitting investors Prosus, WestBridge and Accel.
Uber is worth over $150 billion while Ola was previously valued at more than $7 billion, and it has been a unicorn since 2015, the very year Rapido was formed. It may be a latecomer, having raised just over $700 million to date, but Rapido is shaking things up.
Data from Sensor Tower suggests that Rapido had significantly more users in January and February: nearly 74 million compared to 39 million for Uber and 28 million for Ola. That puts Rapido’s numbers at more than Uber and Ola combined. Other numbers have shown a similar lead.
Rapido has found success with a focus on lower cost transportation, like motorbikes and auto rickshaws, and it covers some 400 cities and towns across India.
Interestingly, Rapido seemed to hastily announce its latest financing just one day after Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced plans for the US firm’s first India-based data centre and two new campuses in the country. During his visit, Khosrowshahi said India can become Uber’s largest market in the next 10 years.
I love the tussle for the limelight like this, it reminds me of the old days of ride-hailing rivalries and even Amazon-Flipkart back in the day in India.
In case you missed it, last week we wrote about Amazon’s failure in Southeast Asia, Shopee’s impressive growth for Sea, Thailand’s Konvy raising $22 million, how Alibaba is running rings around Tencent when it comes to AI and the weekly news.
One thing you should watch is Singapore’s Foreign Minister, a former eye surgeon, explaining at a tech conference how he built himself a ‘second brain for a diplomat’ using an AI personal agent.
Have a great Monday, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Jon
In addition to writing Asia Tech Review, I help great startups and tech companies tell their story through narrative, content and comms. Check out Fully Drafted to learn more.
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China
Nvidia reportedly won US approval for about 10 Chinese firms to buy H200 AI chips, but deliveries have not started, as ever what will happen next is unclear link
Huawei put a secretive chip research lab in the spotlight ahead of Donald Trump’s China visit link
Former Alibaba Qwen lead researcher Junyang Lin is said to be seeking to raise several hundred million dollars for a new AI lab at a potential $2B valuation link
Recursive Superintelligence, the AI startup co-founded by former Meta AI researcher Tian Yuandong, raised more than $650M at a $4.65B valuation link
Tencent won conditional antitrust approval for its acquisition of podcast platform Ximalaya, the deal is worth $2.4 billion link
HongShan closed a $3B continuation fund anchored by a ByteDance stake at a roughly $370B valuation link
Chinese AI companies are pulling ahead of US rivals in AI video generation link
China says it built the world’s first dual-core quantum computer using neutral atoms, but there’s a lack of transparency and doubt from global experts link
Chinese-born engineers and researchers are becoming some of Silicon Valley’s most influential AI figures link
Unitree debuted a mecha robot that can switch from two legs to four—think real life Transformers… link
Kuaishou is reportedly preparing to spin off its Kling AI video unit ahead of a planned IPO next year at a potential $20B valuation link
Shein accused fierce rival Temu of industrial-scale copyright infringement at London’s High Court as the legal battle escalates link
France is pressing the EU to crack down on platforms including Shein and Temu link
SMIC founder Richard Chang urged China’s chip industry to focus on pragmatic breakthroughs in mature and specialty semiconductors rather than chasing 2nm hype link
AI-related exports accounted for about half of China’s export growth in April, according to Goldman Sachs and Nomura estimates link
China’s exports of rare earths and related magnets have fallen since Beijing imposed curbs last year link
Earnings:
Alibaba reported an operating loss of 848M CNY ($125M) for the March quarter as revenue rose 3% link
Tencent reported March-quarter revenue up 9% to 196.5B CNY ($28.9B) as net income rose to 58.1B CNY link
JD.com reported first-quarter profit of 5.1B CNY ($750.2M), down 53.2%, while revenue rose 4.9% to 315.7B CNY link
Ant Group’s profit fell 79% as it increased AI spending across healthcare, large language models and payments link
India
Agrani Labs, an AI chip startup co-founded by Intel and AMD veterans, is reportedly raising $100M at a $400M-$500M valuation in what could become one of India’s biggest Series A rounds link
India’s first semiconductor fab is nearing launch into a market increasingly dominated by China’s mature-node chip push link
Jio’s planned IPO is set to be fully fresh funding with no offer for sale, according to reports link
But Flipkart has now indefinitely paused its IPO plans amid market volatility link
Amazon is ramping up its 10-minute delivery push in India as it takes on market leader Blinkit in quick commerce link
Early backers including Peak XV, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator sold 29.52 crore Groww shares for 53.18B INR ($620M) after the IPO lock-in expired link
Lightspeed is said to be cutting its latest India-focused fund to about $300M to $350M link
Former Peak XV executives Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma are launching Mettle Capital with a target of $350M to $400M link
Southeast Asia
Indonesian prosecutors are seeking an 18-year prison sentence for former education minister and Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim over a school laptop procurement case link
F88 is preparing for a stock market debut after turning pawnshop lending into a fast-growing consumer finance business in Vietnam link
Sea reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as Shopee drove revenue up 47% to $7.1B link
Indian fintech Pine Labs is expanding in the Philippines through a partnership with GCash link
Google is expanding its mosquito-control project Debug in Singapore with its first overseas R&D hub and largest adult mosquito production facility link
Balaji Srinivasan is pitching his Network School project to Malaysian politicians as a way to attract global tech talent link
Qualcomm is expanding its Vietnam R&D work into chip design link
Singapore-based DayOne Data Centers is considering expanding its Series C round to more than $4B link
DayOne is also reportedly planning a dual listing in Singapore and New York that could raise about $5B at a $20B valuation link
Lightrock launched a $500M fund to back energy transition companies across South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa link
Japan
Japanese taxi-hailing app Go is set for Tokyo’s biggest IPO of 2026 at a projected valuation of 180B JPY ($1.14B) link
Kioxia is preparing a US listing after record quarterly earnings of 596.8B JPY and forecasting operating profit of 1.3T JPY ($8.2B) for the June quarter link
LY Corp and Bain Capital launched a counterbid for Kakaku.com that values the company at about 640B JPY ($4B) link
Japan’s JICA is launching a programme to train space industry professionals from developing countries including India, the Philippines and Indonesia link
Axiom Space will launch a Japan unit in July to deepen ties with local companies link
SoftBank plans to expand into AI infrastructure and battery manufacturing, including AI cloud services in Japan and large-scale battery cell production in Osaka from next fiscal year link
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is also considering investing as much as $100B in a French AI data centre project link
Japan’s three megabanks are set to gain access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos by the end of May link
The country’s enterprise-led blockchain is set to issue a yen stablecoin for B2B settlements link
South Korea
Config, which is building a data layer for robotics, raised a $27M seed round led by Samsung Venture Investment at a valuation above $200M link
Hana Bank bought a 1T KRW ($670M) stake in crypto exchange company Dunamu link
WIRobotics raised about $68M in a Series B round to accelerate development of its humanoid robotics platform link
South Korea’s military is exploring a partnership with Hyundai to deploy robots in front-line roles as troop shortages worsen link
Samsung and its South Korean labour union failed to reach a pay deal, raising the risk of a full-scale strike link
OKX is advancing plans to acquire a majority stake in South Korean crypto exchange Coinone link
Taiwan
Foxconn posted strong results on AI hardware sales link
TSMC said the global chip market will hit $1.5T by 2030 as AI drives growth link
Hong Kong
Prosus is selling a 5% stake in Delivery Hero to Hong Kong-based Aspex Management for about €335M link
RoboTechnik founder Dai Jun is considering a Hong Kong dual listing after the company’s shares rose 340% over the past year link
Hi Jon! I feel that the competition in the ride-hailing market in India is going to intensify, especially because I've noticed Rapido, Uber, and Ola are heavily used in some cities. For example, Rapido is widely used in Delhi. However, the real opportunity, I think, lies in tier-2 cities and villages where cheap transport/mobility is an issue. There is a real gap in these places for cost-effective transport.
I write a blog in substack titled "The LegalTech Thesis," wherein I analyze LegalTech startups, trends, and the opportunities in the space to invest in. Would love to get your thoughts on my blog!
https://harshithviswanath.substack.com/