Business and technology quick bites

Updated version at 8.15 am

The highlighted words in red are links to the news article.

April 9, 2021,

Business News

1. HSBC and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) partners in a combined $300 million financing to help Asia’s supply chains boost manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 vaccines.
2. Singapore Exchange (SGX) and New Zealand’s Exchange (NZX) have signed a strategic partnership agreement to scale up market distribution and liquidity to unlock growth in the global dairy derivatives markets.
3. Amsterdam-based technology investor Prosus said on Thursday it netted US$14.6 billion from its overnight sale of a 2 per cent stake in Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent in one of the world’s largest ever block trades.
4. Singapore leadership plan upended as Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat will step aside as the leader of the fourth-generation People’s Action Party (PAP) leadership team.
5. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, wants to allocate a larger chunk of its US$1.3 trillion portfolio to external asset managers, this means as much as US$80 billion.
6. Japan-headquartered automotive group VT Holdings has acquired UK-based Caterham Cars Ltd from Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun.

Technology News

1. Tiger Global is investing in messaging bots startup Gupshup at a US$1.4 billion valuation, the latest in a string of major startup deals in India’s fast-growing mobile arena.
2. Speciale Invest, a seed stage venture capital firm investing in deep technologies has announced the first closing of its second fund. The second fund has raised 1.4 billion rupees (US$19 million) and the firm claims it has exceeded its target and was oversubscribed with the backing of an experienced group of domestic investors.
3. The first quarter of 2021 marked a record-setting time for startup funding, with investors pumping $72.7 billion into North American tech startups’ growth-stage rounds, doubling the total from a year ago, with investments rising 57 percent from the previous quarter.
4. Singapore is looking to build on its pivotal role in the world’s oceangoing trade lanes, aiming to bring in investment of $15 billion across all aspects of maritime trade—with an eye on tech.