Laiye closes $50m Series C+; Baidu launches paid robotaxi services

#China #funding - Robotic process automation has become buzzy in the last few months. New York-based UiPath is on course to launch an initial public offering after gaining an astounding valuation of $35 billion in February. Over in China, homegrown RPA startup Laiye is making waves as well. (TechCrunch)

#India #funding - Bengaluru-based edtech giant BYJU’S is said to be close to becoming the highest valued Indian startup, as it looks to raise $150 Mn funding from UBS Group AG at a valuation of $16.5 Bn. (Inc42)

#SouthKorea #funding - Pharmcadd Co. Ltd., a developer of an AI and physics-based drug discovery platform, bagged $15.5 million in its series B funding. This brings the total funds raised since its establishment to $22 million. (BioWorld)

#India #funding - Indian logistics automation firm Unbox Robotics said it raised $1.2 million as part of its pre-series A round of funding. (Tech in Asia - subscriber)

#China #robotaxis - Baidu will launch paid driverless robotaxi services in Beijing from May 2, making it the among the first companies in the country to offer autonomous driving robotaxi services to paying users. (Reuters)

#Japan #US #AVs - Toyota Motor Corp. has acquired the self-driving division of American ride-hailing company Lyft for $550 million, in a move that highlights the Japanese automaker’s ambitions in that technology. (ABC News)

#China #spacetech - A Chinese startup company called Origin Space has launched a prototype robot designed to collect space debris and eventually mine asteroids while in low-Earth orbit. The Neo-01 robot was launched on the Chinese state-backed rocket Long March recently. (Robotics & Automation)

#China #maritime - A robotic fish developed by a team of researchers from Hangzhou in China was able to reach the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean – the Mariana Trench – at a depth of almost 11 km (6.8 miles). (The Conversation)

#SouthKorea #robotics - South Koreas top economic official promised to ease robot-related regulations and allow delivery robots to travel between floors using elevators sometime this year. The move underlines government efforts to realize the early commercial use of self-driving robots. (Aju Daily)

#India #education - Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, signed an MoU with the Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), USA, on Wednesday to set up a school of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence to promote these courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. (Times of India)

#NorthKorea #education - North Korea is actively pursuing the modernization of education evaluation methods by introducing AI for foreign language tests. Pyongsong Normal University has recently created a foreign language exam using AI technology. (Korea Bizwire)

#Singapore #funding - Tessolve raises $40 million from Singapore’s Novo Tellus at $100 million valuation on Business Standard. The funding will be used by Tessolve, a Hero Electronix venture, to drive further growth through acquisitions and organic investments. (Business Standard)

#Singapore #drones - An area near Marina South Pier has now been designated as a space for maritime drone fliers to test their wares, including by delivering 3D-printed shipping parts to vessels docked near Singapore’s shores.. (Straits Times)

#India #investment - Global enterprises are expected to invest $98 billion in AI by 2023 and India’s share in it will be about $1 billion, said Project Management Institute (PMI), a Philadelphia-based non-profit organisation with about 28,000 individual members in India. (The Hindu)

#Singapore #supercomputer - Singapore will build a second national supercomputer system to support the local research community, providing eight times more compute capacity than its predecessor. Slated to be operational by early-2022, the system is one of more planned over the next five years. (ZDNet)

#Japan #US #trade - The Japan and U.S. governments’ discussion of economic issues is a path to mobilisation and cooperation, not contestation (at least between themselves). It would be hard to script a better start to the new U.S. administration and its relationship with Japan. (Japan Times)

#China #AIrace - Newcomer OneFlow is competing with bigger Chinese rivals like Huawei to develop open-source AI frameworks to reduce China’s reliance on US platforms like Google and Facebook. (SCMP)

$China #Huawei - Huawei Technologies saw revenue fall 16.5% in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, hurt by a dip in sales after selling its budget smartphone unit Honor in November. (Reuters)

#China #US #AIrace - On “Intelligence Matters” this week, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt joins host Michael Morell to make the argument for A.I. as a national security priority. (CBS News)

#Japan #UK #nuclearpower - The UK Atomic Energy Authority has awarded Veolia Nuclear Solutions (UK) and Wälischmiller Engineering GmbH separate contracts totalling £3 million to supply robotic manipulator arms to its RACE research facility. (Gov.uk)

#SouthKorea #AVs - South Korea will push for the development of a state-of-the-art unmanned surveillance vehicle in earnest after years of preliminary research into the project, the arms procurement agency said Thursday. (KoreaBizWire)

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