Bengaluru food delivery startup Swish raises $38M, its third round in 18 months
Swish has more than doubled its valuation in a year as its full-stack, hyperlocal model positions ultra-fast food delivery as a high-frequency habit.
Commerce
Grab to buy Foodpanda Taiwan from Delivery Hero for $600 million
Grab will acquire Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan for $600 million, expanding beyond Southeast Asia and setting up a closer challenge to Uber Eats in a tightly contested market.
Patreon CEO calls AI companies’ fair use argument ‘bogus,’ says creators should be paid
Patreon CEO Jack Conte says AI companies should pay creators for training data, arguing their fair use defense falls apart when they license content from major publishers.
Amazon adds 1-hour and 3-hour delivery options in the US
Amazon Prime subscribers will be charged $9.99 for one-hour delivery and $4.99 for three-hour delivery. If you don’t have a Prime subscription, you’ll pay $19.99 for one-hour delivery and $14.99 for three-hour delivery.
Shopify is preparing for AI shopping agents to change everything, exec says
Shopify is preparing for an ecommerce transformation via AI shopping agents, says president Harley Finklestein.
Apple drops commission rates in China without a fuss
Apple dropped its App Store commission rates to 25% in China, and commissions on auto-renewed subscriptions down to 12%.
Facebook Marketplace now lets Meta AI respond to buyers’ messages
When buyers inquire about an item’s availability, sellers can use Meta AI to automatically draft replies using information from their listing, such as the description, availability, pickup location, and price.
Ride-hailing inDrive acquires Pakistan’s Krave Mart to bolster grocery delivery
inDrive has closed its acquisition of KraveMart, expanding grocery delivery in a market dominated by Foodpanda.
Quince hits $10B valuation with giant $500M round led by Iconiq
E-commerce company Quince has raised another massive round, less than a year after its previous raise.