Silicon Dragon News – January 30, 2015
‘Guru Fixer’ COO Drives Mobile Search Engine Quixey Into Chindia For Faster Growth With Partnerships, Deals
Not too many Silicon Valley tech companies are going after both the China and India markets even though that’s where the biggest opportunities exist for many tech companies going after fast growth and profitability.
One company that is ahead on this front is mobile app search engine Quixey in Mountain View. China followed by India are top priority markets for Quixey, COO Guru Gowrappan told me during an interview this week.
Already, China accounts for 50 percent of the search app’s volume and some 20 to 30 percent of revenues – on par with the U.S. market. India, a market that skipped right over the desktop generation, lags on revenue so far for Quixey, but should speed up within two to three years. Quixey’s one of our featured speakers at Silicon Dragon in Palo Alto, Feb. 5.
Check out more of the COO’s views at
Forbes: Click on Quixotic Quixey
Chinese social networking siteRenren has been making steady investments in techstartups as it seeks to broaden its revenue stream, become profitable, and boost its stock price.
All of these new investments led by CEO Joseph Chen have been far afield from its core business in social networking, and most of these deals are in the U.S.
Chen, throughout his entrepreneurial career, has been an empire builder, acquiring and investing in related tech startups and also divesting businesses that are not going anywhere. Renren itself was built mostly from a combination of acquired or invested in sites.
Renren plans to invest some $500 million in financial tech, and has already invested nearly half that amount, although the NYSE-listed company is investing in other tech areas, too.
Chen’s latest investment in San Mateo-based stock trading site Motif is one in a series of those bets on financial tech. In mid-January 2015, Renren led a $40 million financing for the four-year old Motif.
Keep reading at Forbes: Empire Builder
Former Qihoo VP Nabs $100M For China Startup That Speeds Up Android Phones
Another week, another huge deal for an innovative Chinese tech company.
A startup founded by former Qihoo 360 VP Tao Li has raised $100 million from a who’s who list of venture investors: Chengwei Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Redpoint Capital, Northern Light Venture Capital and private equity firm SIG.
APUS Group, the startup, is – you guessed it! – in the mobile space, developing apps and features. Based in Beijing, APUS (or Swift Bird) has developed a bunch of applications that make it easier, faster and more convenient to use the Android operating system. One of the main complaints about Android phones is that they are slow. Not with Swift Bird though.
Keep reading post at Forbes: Swift Bird.
TECH DEAL NEWS
CHINA
Jack Ma lost $1.4 billion today
Jack Ma’s fortune dropped $1.4 billion yesterday, the most among the world’s 400 richest people, as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares posted a record slump after the company missed revenue estimates. http://bloom.bg/1JQ2OFM
Joe Tsai responds to regulator white paper
Only one question came up during Alibaba’s earnings call about the recent report released by a Chinese regulator criticizing the e-commerce giant. But that might understate how likely the report is to influence talk about Alibaba for some time.
The regulator, the State Administration For Industry And Commerce (SAIC), accused Alibaba of selling fake goods and misleading customers on its shopping platform Taobao.com.
SAIC has taken down the report, which ranked Taobao worse for fakes and reliability than rival China sites JD.com and Yihaodian.com.
Alibaba Group executive chairman Joe Tsai responded to concerns over the report, noting among other things that Alibaba never requested a delay of the ‘white paper’ before Alibaba’s IPO.
http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/news/press_pdf/p150129a.pdf
OUYA! Guess who just got a $10 million investment from Alibaba?http://engt.co/1z9kWHG
Xiaomi May Have A Major Patent Problemhttp://onforb.es/1zFGFZJ
The Price Of China Hype: Weibo Shares Near New Low http://onforb.es/1uH55KE
The Big Reason Apple Is Beating Samsung in China http://bit.ly/1yGH8Uk
AutoBot, a Beijing startup that makes diagnostic tools for cars, has raised a $6 million Series A from Gobi Partners and ABC Capital.
Beibei, a Chinese ecommerce site specializing in goods for infants and toddlers, raised US$100M in a series C funding round led by Capital Today and New Horizon.
Chinese drone maker EHANG nabbed $10 million from GGV Capital and angel investors, Nick Yang and Xiaoping Xu.
Derrick Xiong, a co-founder of EHANG, is on a mission to make personal drones mainstream. He will tell all here:
Silicon Dragon, Feb. 5, in Palo Alto.
The startup raised $600,00 on Indiegogo’s crowd-financing platform last November for its Ghost Drone product. Keep reading post at Forbes,Ghost Drone.
INDIA
US to help India become technologically developed. http://bit.ly/1JRnvRQTemasek set to acquire the India venture debt unit of SVB Financial Group for $45 million.
Indian e-commerce leader ShopClues raises $100M, in deal led by Tiger Globalhttp://bit.ly/1J3qPH8
As Flipkart Eyes Wall St IPO, Top Global Investment Banks Hotfoot To India:http://onforb.es/1v7Tjin
