5 in 5 minutes - February 10

Uber says goodbye to Taiwan

Uber announced on February 2nd that the service will not be available in Taiwan starting from February 10th due to huge costs in this marketplace. After launching its service in Taiwan four years ago, Uber has provided over 15 million rides in four cities in Taiwan. Uber has been accused of being illegal taxi operators, the Taiwan government had written 481 tickets to Uber, with the total penalty fees of NTD 68.45 million, while fines to Uber drivers reached NTD 20 million.

Rakuten and JAFCO co-invest US$16M in a FinTech Startup in Japan

FOLIO, an online security brokerage service has raised US$16 million in Series A from investors including  JAFCO, Monex Ventures, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, and Rakuten Fintech Fund.

FOLIO offers online security brokerage service, specializing in thematic investing. The company is planning to build their own securities brokerage platform that allows users to make asset management with ease.

Honestbee to launch food delivery service in Singapore

Honestbee, a Singapore-based grocery delivery startup, will launch their food delivery service next week. The startup will add meal delivery service in Central Business District as well as Bukit Merah and River Valley. Honestbee will face competitors such as foodpanda, deliveroo and UberEATS, however, it is the first startup that offers food delivery as well as grocery delivery service.

Singapore's iFashion Group acquires Magafash for US$2.23M

iFashion Group, a Singapore-based lifestyle venture forum has acquired the designer brands marketplace Megafash for US$2.23 million. Megafash works with over 2000 indie brands globally and sells over 300,000 unique products on the marketplace.

A Singapore incubator raises over US$1.4M in seed funding

Mediapreneur, a Singapore-based incubator owned by Mediacorp, has raised over S$2 million in seed funding. Mediapreneur will launch the phrase three of its programme, the application opens until 11:59 pm on 5 March 2017.

Launched in 2013, Mediapreneur provides seed funding, mentorship, workspace and networking opportunities for startups. Through Mediapreneur, its startups can also tap into Mediacorp’s vast media resources.