A News Digest on Investment, Funding and Self-Driving Vehicle Tech Trends #3

Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, has launched e-wallet “Douyin Pay” to compete with China’s dominant e-payment services WeChat Pay and Alipay.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/19/douyin-e-wallet/

Spanish delivery app Glovo raises $121M from Swiss real estate firm Stoneweg to build out delivery-only convenience stores for sub-30 minute delivery times. Stoneweg will build, refurbish the property to help Glovo expand.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-19/spanish-delivery-app-glovo-gets-121-million-for-dark-stores

Google invests $40 million for Indian courier startup Dunzo. Indian courier asked for a $40 million foundation from Google and other investors for a new delivery service due to the high demand for this service during the pandemic.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dunzo-fundraising-google/google-backs-indian-courier-startup-dunzo-in-40-million-fundraising-idUSKBN29O15K

Aurora partners with truck maker PACCAR to develop self-driving big rig trucks “in the next several years”, as it closes the deal for Uber’s self-driving unit.

WSJ.com/articles/paccar-aurora-to-develop-self-driving-big-rigs