H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (9-10 May 2019) – The Company Behind Gore-Tex Is Coming for Your Eyeballs; W.L. Gore, the classic American innovator, is building artificial corneas, and reinventing itself in the process.

May 10, 2019 Leave a comment

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (9-10 May 2019) – The Company Behind Gore-Tex Is Coming for Your Eyeballs; W.L. Gore, the classic American innovator, is building artificial corneas, and reinventing itself in the process.

Companies

  • Online lesson platform GSX Techedu plans US IPO (KRA, Nikkei)
  • China’s CAR Rental raises USD 200m via bond sales to repay old debt (KRA)
  • Recruit invests in Indian AI chatbot platform Techbins (SI)
  • Daifuku’s visualisation and simulation approach to baggage handling (IAR)
  • Sony’s market value stays discounted even as profits pick up; Investors balk at array of businesses with capitalization at half of peak (Nikkei)
  • Trend Micro Reports Solid First Quarter 2019 Results (BW)
  • Recruit invests in Indian AI chatbot platform Techbins (SI)
  • Terry Gou’s right-hand woman tipped to become next Foxconn chief; ‘Money Mama’ Huang seen maintaining mogul’s ties to group (Nikkei); Foxconn to shift some output from Shenzhen to Taiwan (Nikkei)
  • Innodisk Displaying IoT-Ready Solutions and Resolution at IoT World 2019 (PRNW)
  • Shopee beats Lazada in terms of number of visits across Southeast Asia in Q1 2019 (KRA)
  • Afterpay forced to change name for UK launch by Dutch rival (Age)
  • Atlassian shares hit a record after Goldman analysts recommend buying the stock (CNBC)

BATTSS – Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, TSMC, Samsung, Softbank

  • How Garena became extremely important for Tencent’s future (e27)
  • Tencent and Ant Financial win Hong Kong virtual bank licenses; Xiaomi- and Ping An-backed ventures also gain approval from monetary authority (Nikkei)
  • Tencent, Alibaba, Xiaomi units win Hong Kong online banking license (Reuters)
  • WeChat users can now add songs to the videos they post (M(
  • Alipay’s mutual aid platform Xiang Hu Bao now covers senior citizens in China (KRA)
  • Masayoshi Son claims Vision Fund LPs are already up 45% – but that’s mostly paper gains (TC); SoftBank profit grows 36% relying heavily on investment stakes; Vision Fund generates returns but debt and thin cash flow cast shadow (Nikkei); SoftBank’s Son declares second $100bn tech fund will launch soon (Nikkei); Son’s $100 Billion Mammoth Can Still Move Fast; The SoftBank Vision Fund just had its busiest and most profitable quarter, and it still has the Uber IPO to come. (Bloomberg); SoftBank’s Big Bets Start to Pay Off With $3.8 Billion Uber Gain (Bloomberg); What Uber’s IPO Tells Us About SoftBank’s Big Ride-Hailing Bet (Bloomberg); Son’s $100 Billion Mammoth Can Still Move Fast; The SoftBank Vision Fund just had its busiest and most profitable quarter, and it still has the Uber IPO to come. (Bloomberg)
  • Samsung unveils world’s highest-resolution image sensor (Investor)

FAANNMG – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Microsoft, Google

  • Break up Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is too strong, says company’s co-founder (JT)
  • Amazon upgrades its Blink outdoor security camera with better battery, two-way talk (TC)
  • Amazon Hit by Extensive Fraud With Hackers Siphoning Merchant Funds (Bloomberg)
  • Google and Qualcomm launch a dev kit for building Assistant-enabled headphones (TC)
  • Google Maps’ AR navigation makes walking directions foolproof (Age); Assistant thinks on the fly, and other Android updates coming soon (Age)
  • Google Fights Back (BT)
  • Waymo at 1,000 Riders: The Self-Driving Frontrunner Inches Forward (Bloomberg)
  • Microsoft is building a virtual assistant for work. Google is building one for everything else (qz)
  • The $1 trillion miracle of Microsoft; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has a completely different style to that of his predecessors, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. It’s helped turn the tech giant from a market laggard into the world’s most valuable company (AFR)
  • Netflix acquires kids’ educational content co. StoryBots (TC)
  • Services are the new battleground for Apple (AFR)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

  • WeChat challenger Toilet pivots to e-commerce, rebrands as Haoji (TN)
  • Chinese mom-focused social commerce platform Beidian raises USD 126 million; Anyone can open a shop on Beidian to sell and share products, and receive commissions from sales. (KRA)
  • Co-chiefs of China’s top chipmaker SMIC fighting over strategy; Pair battle over whether to pursue profits or state demands for cutting-edge technology (FT)
  • Chinese fintech firms cosy up to banks as collaborators instead of disrupters they shift towards retail banking (SCMP)
  • Slump in China Stocks Threatens to Spoil Tech Board Plan (Bloomberg)
  • China’s Robocars Are Being Lapped By Their U.S. Competitors (Bloomberg)
  • Chinese AI unicorn Megvii raises US$750 million ahead of planned IPO (SCMP)
  • China now has 202 unicorns, says report (KRA)
  • Three shifts in Chinese clean tech recast climate villain as savior; Solar is finally cheaper than fossil fuels; wind and EVs are not far behind (Nikkei)
  • Douyin set to add “Products” category to its search bar (KRA)
  • China’s Microsoft challenger Kingsoft files for Shanghai tech board listing (TN)
  • Toyota, Panasonic to set up company for ‘connected’ homes (Reuters)
  • Taiwanese solid-state battery maker ProLogium seeing adoption in electric vehicles (TN)
  • Seoul to spend W240b for next-generation chip tech (Investor)
  • How HaloDoc aims to open greater access to healthcare for all Indonesians; Medical facilities in Indonesia are not evenly distributed. HaloDoc wants to help tackle this challenge (e27)
  • RIP Indian Handsets: Micromax, Intex, Lava and Karbonn hold only 3 percent market share (Forbes)
  • BigBasket gets funds from Alibaba, Mirae as investors bet on Indian startups; Online grocery retailer receives $150 million (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

  • How Artificial Intelligence could help with early detection of breast cancer (MW)
  • SaaS startups are changing the founder/investor dynamic (TNW)
  • com to bolster caregivers’ screening checks (MW)
  • Uber’s global ‘alliances’ create frenemies that cloud long-term prospects (TN); Data and delivery: how Uber aims to move things around the world (Age); Uber Is Going Public: How Today’s Tech; I.P.O.s Differ From the Dot-Com Boom (NYT); The answer to Uber’s profit challenge? It may lie in its trove of data (Reuters); Uber has recipes to avoid delivery indigestion (Reuters); Uber’s losses are nothing like young Amazon’s (Reuters)
  • Lyft stops providing key data after IPO, then insults investors’ intelligence (MW); How Lyft disguises its losses (qz); Lyft takes some gas out of Uber’s IPO (Reuters)
  • Square teams up with Postmates for delivery partnership (MW)
  • Roku stock surge adds another $100 million to short sellers’ paper losses this year (MW)
  • IBM Could Struggle in the Cloud, Analyst Says – and Watch Out for Activist Investors (Barron’s)
  • Citron Research’s Andrew Left slams Jumia as a ‘fraud’ and ‘worthless’ (MW)
  • With new Fit technology, Nike calls itself a tech company (TC); Sick of Getting Returned Sneakers, Nike Tries a New Sizing App (Bloomberg)
  • Symantec CEO to step down in abrupt departure as company warns on profit (Reuters)
  • Rent the Runway just opened its largest brick-and-mortar store yet (TC)
  • Pandora expands its music-and-podcasts product Pandora Stories with help from SiriusXM’s guests (TC)
  • Pearl, the healthcare spinout from LA-based AI startup, GumGum, raises $11 million (TC)
  • Robotics startups won’t win without also incorporating AI, as Karakuri’s fundraise shows (TC)
  • Printify raises $3M to expand its marketplace for custom printing (TC)
  • Slack: Why your company needs to find its hedgehog (TNW)
  • How 5G will transform the way we use computers (Age)
  • Live music streaming pioneer Boiler Room touches down in China (KRA)
  • Disruptions of the last decade: How technology has changed the way we live, work and socialise (Forbes)
  • TripAdvisor Stock Tumbles Because Investors Don’t Like the Look of the Road Ahead (Barron’s)
  • “ServiceNow’s differentiated technology in automation and process management positions them well to build a strong ecosystem connecting all major portions of the company’s IT and business operations” (Barron’s)
  • WeWork: leaser of last resort (FT)
  • How Intel found itself ‘in a little bit of a bathtub’; Chief Bob Swan cautions chipmaker faces anaemic revenue growth and slipping margins; Intel’s stock is down almost 20 per cent in the past two weeks alone (FT)
  • BrainBox AI has announced the launch of a new product that combines deep learning, cloud-based computing and algorithms to support a self-sustaining commercial building (BK)
  • Managing data as an asset: An interview with the CEO of Informatica (MK)
  • Disney Writes Off Its Vice Stake in Latest Sign of Trouble (Bloomberg)
  • New York Times Company Continues to Add Online Subscribers as Digital Advertising Grows (NYT)
  • Real Estate’s Latest Bid: Zillow Wants to Buy Your House (NYT)

Life

  • The Company Behind Gore-Tex Is Coming for Your Eyeballs; W.L. Gore, the classic American innovator, is building artificial corneas, and reinventing itself in the process. (Bloomberg)
  • Asia is home to 50% of world’s fastest growing companies; Tencent leads 1,679 ‘ten baggers’ and India emerges as top incubator, data show (Nikkei)
  • How toxic company culture is derailing billion-dollar M&As (TNW)
  • SGX to Best World: Is main customer in China a related party? Firm had declared Changsha Best an independent party in offensive against short-seller; separate report says Dora Hoan’s brother-in-law is behind it (BT)
  • Berkshire Takes Tax Hit as Victim of ‘Ponzi-Type’ Solar Scheme (Bloomberg)

Filed under Innovation

About bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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