The funding round for Biofourmis was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

Existing investors such as Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and EDBI also participated in the funding round.

Biofourmis’ platform combines AI-based health analytics and wearable sensors to help healthcare providers gauge patient progress and the effectiveness of drugs and other treatments.

Biofourmis chief executive officer Kuldeep Singh Rajput told the media, “With this new funding, we will accelerate our global expansion, advance our digital therapeutics pipeline, develop additional care pathways and drive deeper integration with our health system, hospital, pharmaceutical and clinical research clients and partners.”

According to the company, it will use the funds to bring new digital therapeutic solutions for cardiology, respiratory, oncology and pain treatments to the market.

The funding will also be used by Biofourmis to expand its business around the world.

Last month, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a new injection of S$8 billion stimulus package. This could potentially lead to the creation of around 4000 new jobs in Singapore’s healthcare sector.

As a part of its efforts to deal with the pandemic as well as boost the healthcare sector, the government in Singapore is urging companies in sectors such as healthcare and fintech to hire more in the next six months.

According to reports, under a new S$1 billion initiative, the government will co-pay 25 percent of salaries for new local hires for up to a year.

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According to Didi Chuxing, it is currently working on autonomous driving technologies and plans to deploy its robo-taxis in regions where there is a shortage of cars or drivers.

The company’s chief operating officer, Meng Xing confirmed the same during an online conference hosted by the South China Morning Post.

Last year in August, Didi Chuxing announced that it would begin picking up riders with self-driving cars in Shanghai, and would then expand the program from there, culminating in the deployment of its vehicles outside of China by 2021.

In recent times, we have witnessed Chinese automakers and tech companies investing billions in the autonomous driving industry to compete with the likes of Tesla, Alphabet Waymo, and Uber Technologies.

Last month, Didi Chuxing announced that it has secured an investment of around $500 million in a fresh funding round led by SoftBank.

Reportedly, the proceedings came through SoftBank’s  Vision Fund 2.

Earlier this month, Didi Chuxing also announced that it is launching an on-demand cargo delivery service. The cargo delivery service is available in Chengdu and Hangzhou and has started operating since June 23.

Customers will be able to place logistic orders through Didi Chuxing’s mobile application.

A spokesperson from Didi Chuxing told TechWeb that the company selected Chengdu and Hangzhou as the first two pilot cities after a comprehensive assessment based on user votes and driver registrations in various cities.

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According to media reports, OneConnect, which is the fintech arm of Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An, is planning for an IPO in New York rather than Hong Kong to achieve a higher valuation. The startup’s initial plan was to raise $1 billion by listing its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and achieve a valuation of $8 billion.

OneConnect, which is backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, has hired firms such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Ping An Securities, and HSBC as underwriters for the IPO.

Reportedly, OneConnect’s IPO filing revealed a net loss of $147 million during the nine months ended September 30, as compared with an $82 million net loss for the same period last year.

So far, OneConnect had provided services to over 200 banks and 200,000 enterprises as of September this year. The startup so far has received more than $1 billion as loans from Ping An with an interest rate between 4.55 percent to 7.3 percent.

Earlier in 2018, the company also launched its blockchain platform with a focus on finance, real estate, medical and the automobile industry. According to OneConnect, its blockchain technology can handle up to 50,000 transactions per second with a latency of fewer than 0.5 seconds and also implements zero-knowledge proof technology.

Ping An’s healthcare startup Ping An Good Doctor, which is also backed by SoftBank, raised around $1.1 billion by listing its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The post China fintech OneConnect skips HK, to raise $100 mn in US IPO appeared first on International Finance.

The equity fund targets the technology sector, according to Mumtalakat Chief Executive Mahmood Al Kooheji. “We’re talking to them, we haven’t made any commitment yet,” he told Reuters. “I think it’s very interesting, and a lot of people have already put a lot of tickets.”

Gulf state funds such as the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund, and Mubadala Investment Company have invested in SoftBank’s US$93bn Vision Fund.

Previously, Mumtalakat has considerably borrowed funds and is currently looking to explore possible funding options for the future. A CNBC news report reads “In 2014 the fund issued a US$600mn sukuk and raised a US$500mn loan.”

“This year we don’t need to borrow but we’re opportunistic if the conditions are good.We have maturities coming next year and the year after, and we’re always engaging with our advisers,” Kooheji said.

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