Also, Tencent invests in Brazilian fintech firm and ComfortDelGro plans a subscription service

ONE Championship raises US$166 million led by Sequoia — [e27]

The martial arts entertainment startup, ONE Championship, has raised a US$166 million Series D, it was announced today.

The funding was led by Sequoia Capital and included investment from Temasek, Greenoaks Capital and other institutional investors. The latest rounds brings the company’s total funding to over US$250 million.

ONE Championship is a leading martial arts entertainment company in Asia and hosts competitions for muay thai, kickboxing, silat and kung fu.

Sequoia had previously invested in the company in 2017.

SoftBank Vision Fund gets $45B infusion from Saudi sovereign wealth fund — [Bloomberg]

Saudi Arabia’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund, The Public Investment Fund, is expecting to invest US$45 billion in the equally humongous SoftBank Vision Fund.

Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi Arabia crown prince and head of The Public Investment Fund, told Bloomberg he wants to contribute the money to SoftBank’s second Vision Fund.

If it goes through, the deal would mean Saudi Arabia would have invested US$90 billion in SoftBank’s Vision Fund strategy. The Public Investment Fund has also invested US$3.5 billion into Uber.

Tencent planning US$200 million investment in Brazilian fintech company NuBank — [The Information]

Tencent has made its first investment in Brazil, backing a Brazilian startup that operates as a digital bank and credit card operator, according to The Information.

The deal is said to value NuBank at around US$4 billion, which would make it one of the most valuable startups in Latin America.

Philippines tech skills learning platform CloudSwyft grabs funding from IT giant — [e27]

CloudSwyft, a Philippines startup that helps companies train their employees in technology, has raised an undisclosed investment from Wordtext Systems, Inc. Group. The money will be used to finance CloudSwyft’s marketing and future expansion plans.

Possibly more important is the partnership with the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines. The partnership will funnel entire workforces towards CloudSwyft.

Prior to today’s news, CloudSwyft had raised US$736,000 from Future Now Ventures.

Singapore taxi operator launches subscription service — [e27]

ComfortDelGro, a Singaporean taxi company, has partnered with a Finnish business named MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) Globa to launch a Netflix-style subscription service. The idea is to charge customers a monthly rate which will consolidate their taxi, bus, bus, train, car rental and bicycle transportation services under one platform.

No pricing model was released, but in Helsinki, Finland (where MaaS is based), the company charges US$600 per month for unlimited public transportation, taxis and city-bike rentals.

ComfortDelGro is expected to officially launch the service in early 2019.

——

The post Today’s top tech news, October 8: Big money for ONE Championship and SoftBank Vision Fund appeared first on e27.

Source: E27