After the collapse of Bitcoin exchange, the government of Japan decided not to regulate Bitcoin transactions because they do not consider it a currency, but a commodity that will be subject to sales tax.
Asia/Pacific
Singapore-based Drive.SG secures $790K in Series A round
Singapore-based online car rental website received $790,000 in its Series A funding round from Insas Berhad, an investment holding firm based in Malaysia, TechCrunch reported.
Tencent Holdings Ltd agrees to acquire 15pct stake in retailer JD.com for $214.7M
Tencent Holdings will be acquiring a 15% stake in JD.com in a $214.7 million deal to provide a stronger platform that will rival Alibaba Group Holdings in the space, Bloomberg reported.
San Francisco startup Spellgun launches to bring Western mobile games to China
San Francisco, US-based startup Spellgun launched today to bring Western mobile games to China's mobile market under a partnership with video game art outsourcing firm Concept Art House and Chinese firm Talkweb.
Tencent Holdings may acquire a 16pct stake in online retailer and merge platforms
Tencent Holdings, the biggest Internet company in China, could get a 16% stake in online retailer JD.com, according to a Chinese business newspaper, Reuters reported.
Latest News
Altitude Games, a fresh mobile gaming studio based in the Philippines, has received $275,000 for its seed funding round to help it create its "original IP in the midcore game space," TechCrunch reported.
A team of researchers from Daejeon, South Korea-based public research university Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) led by Professor Yoo Hoi-Jun have developed a head-mounted display (HMD) which is 30 times faster than Google Glass.
An agreement was entered into between Walt Disney Studios and Shanghai Media Group Pictures to allow writers and filmmakers in the US and China to work together in producing Disney movies with Chinese themes, Reuters reported.
Reinventure, Global Founders Capital and other investors joined the Series A round for Australia's only active peer-to-peer lending firm SocietyOne which raised $8.5 million, a statement about the funding said.
Indian entrepreneur and angel investor Sashi Reddi is backing Hyderabad-based fast food restaurant chain Hello Curry with INR3 crore from his seed-stage venture fund Sri Capital.
Former Apple chief John Sculley is teaming up with former HTC India head Ajay Sharma and Singaporean investment firm Inflexionpoint to launch a yet-unnamed smartphone brand in India, which will release its first units in April.
Viddsee, an independent film platform based in Singapore, has forged a content partnership agreement with Yahoo to bring Asian independent films to a wider audience, TechCrunch reported.
Goxcoin is the proposal that Humint and the Mastercoin Foundation have proposed that could potentially help Mt. Gox recover the bitcoins lost on its platform, TechCrunch reported.
Arkansas, US-based retail giant Walmart is planning to establish an e-commerce marketplace in India in a bid to compete with online retail giants for a share in India's e-commerce industry.
