The news on Indonesia’s ride-hailing company Grab’s ongoing US$1.2 billion fundraise is the highlight of the day

South Korea likely to shut down domestic cryptocurrency exchanges [Reuters]

South Korean policymakers joined the global chorus of virtual-coin critics on Thursday, saying Seoul is considering shutting down domestic virtual currency exchanges as the new breed of market exposes users to speculative frenzy and crime.

The country’s tough stance comes as policymakers from the United States to Germany struggle to come up with stricter regulation against money laundering and other crimes.

Responding to questions in parliament, South Korea’s chief of the Financial Services Commission said: “(The government) is considering both shutting down all local virtual currency exchanges or just the ones who have been violating the law.”

Japan’s Sega Sammy Partners with India’s startup accelerator GHV [press release]

The Japanese media and entertainment business company Sega Sammy Holdings has partnered with India-based GHV Accelerator to create new opportunities in the media and entertainment space with the Indian companies.

The areas of interest for Sega Sammy through this partnership would be Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML).

With this tie-up, Sega Sammy and GHV plan to exchange business information between the two countries, accelerate portfolio companies and create new business models in the Indian entertainment sector. The Japanese conglomerate engages in the businesses of pachislot and pachinko, entertainment contents (amusement machines and facilities, home video game software, animation, toys and other forms of digital entertainment) and resorts.

Sega Sammy has 39 group companies in Japan and 27 group companies in the international portfolio.

Hubba teams up with Google to help entrepreneurs in Thailand [Bangkok Post]

Thailand’s oldest co-working space Hubba has announced a partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs, which will allow its members to take advantage of Google’s network of co-working spaces and community programmes in over 135 countries. Hubba will join 50 other organisations with a global footprint, including six Google Campuses that are operated for entrepreneurs.

Hubba members are now connected to the Google for Entrepreneurs Passport programme, which allows members to access more than 20 Google partner spaces across the world.

Members can apply to Google’s Entrepreneurs Exchange programme, a series of week-long immersion programmes aimed at helping startups gain access into new markets. They will also have access to Google Demo Day, an event that brings together startups from around the world to showcase their technology and meet top investors and mentors in Silicon Valley.

Google, Temasek to participate in Go-Jek’s US$1.2B funding round [e27]

Indonesia’s ride-hailing giant Go-Jek is raising a whopping US$1.2 billion in an investment round from search engine behemoth Google and Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings, says a Reuters report, quoting sources.

Chinese online platform Meituan-Dianping is also joining the round, which will also see Go-Jek’s existing investors KKR and Warburg Pincus participating.

Earlier in May last year, TechCrunch reported that Go-Jek has closed a US$1.2 billion led by Chinese internet honcho Tencent at US$3 billion valuation. It is not clear if both these rounds are the same.

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