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Top Ten News from Last Week

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NPL rose to BDT 939 billion The amount of classified loans rose more than 26% by the number of BDT 196.08 billion in the last fiscal year in spite of various measure taken by Bangladesh Bank. The amount of NPL was BDT 939.11 billion on 31 December, 2018 which was BDT 743.03 billion on the same date of 2017 according to
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ADB expects Asia to grow 6% this year

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Manila based institution, Asian Development Bank released an update of Asian Development Outlook on Wednesday which clearly stated that Asia will grow 6% this year and 5.8% next year. According to the report, China is expected to grow 6.6% and 6.3% in 2018,2019 where India is expected to grow 7.3% and 7.6% in the same period. The reasons for growth are
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Grab

Grab, NUS trial e-scooter sharing service, GrabWheels

Navojit Dastidar Leave a comment
A three-month trial has begun for Grab's e-scooter sharing service GrabWheels at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Kent Ridge campus. E-scooters have been deployed across eight parking stations on campus in the pilot, which sees the new GrabWheels service being tested for the first time in Singapore, Grab said in a joint news release with NUS on Friday (Nov 23). The number
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Wework

New age WeWork Labs will not take equity in exchange for mentorship

Navojit Dastidar Leave a comment
With the goal of helping early-stage entrepreneurs move into the next stage of their startup journey, WeWork officially launched its ‘Labs’ programme in Singapore today, marking its first foray into Southeast Asia. The programme — which cannot be compared to an accelerator or incubator — is a for-pay programme that does not take any equity and works like a bespoke
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health tech

Indian health-tech startups bag all-time high funding of $510m in 2018

Navojit Dastidar Leave a comment
Venture capital investment in home-grown Indian health-tech startups in 2018 is at an all-time high with continuing investor interest, data from Tracxn Technologies shows. So far, $510 million has been invested across 80 health-tech startups, led by medicine ordering website PharmEasy, which raised $115 million across three rounds this year. Other significant funding rounds include fitness startup Curefit raising $100 million
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MassMutual Ventures launches US$50M Southeast Asia focused fund

Navojit Dastidar Leave a comment
Boston-based venture capital fund MassMutual Ventures today announced the establishment of its US$50 million Southeast Asia-focused fund MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia (SEA).
“We made the decision just about a year ago to evaluate expanding into SEA and establishing a dedicated fund here. The primary rationale is just the tremendous opportunity that we see in the last several years, of entrepreneurs forming businesses and
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Huawei invests $23M to support incubating hub in Thailand and India

Navojit Dastidar Leave a comment
Huawei had announced the opening of its OpenLab in India with the focus on supporting Indian government rolls out its Smart Cities program and an overall digitization in the country using Huawei’s ICT capabilities. As reported by TechObserver.in, Huawei’s new center will function as an incubating hub for Huawei’s India and global market. A total of US$23 million is going
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MasterCard

Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence Published; Bangladesh Recorded The Largest Gain

Nahid Farzana Leave a comment
The Mastercard Index™ of Consumer Confidence survey, which is conducted twice every year since 1993 just published the report of H2, 2016. It’s all good news for Bangladesh. Bangladesh recorded the largest gain in Asia Pacific of 11.2 points to 82.8 points – a significant improvement in overall consumer confidence compared to H1 2016 where it saw a relatively smaller increase of
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Netflix Competitor In Asia Hooq Raised Funding From Singtel, Sony, Warner

Nahid Farzana Leave a comment
Hooq, a Netflix competitor in Asia, raised US$25 million from its existing investors Singtel Sony Pictures, and Warner. The streaming service – majority-owned by Singapore’s top telco – first launched in India, Thailand, and the Philippines in early 2015, later also taking on Indonesia and Singapore. This round takes Hooq’s total amount of funding to US$95 million.  
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kkday

Taiwan-Based KKday Raised US$75M To Strengthen Its Position In Asia’s Online Travel Industry

Nahid Farzana Leave a comment

Taiwan-headquartered online travel discovery platform KKday, has raised US$7 million in Series A+ funding, led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and AppWorks. Other investors who have co-invested in the round include Hong Kong-based Mindworks Ventures, Cathay Venture and Substance Capital (HK). The funds will be used to accelerate KKday’s international growth and strengthen its position in Asia’s online travel industry.


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Bangladesh Steps Down 2 Ranks On ICT Development Index

Nahid Farzana Leave a comment
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) today published the 2016 version of the Measuring the Information Society (MIS) report. The MIS report has been published annually since 2009. It features the key ICT data and benchmarking tools to measure the information society, including the ICT Development Index (IDI). The IDI 2016 measured the level of ICT developments in 175 countries worldwide and compared
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