OCTOBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK9Circular, a Y Combinator-backed Singaporean subscription service focused on high-end consumer electronics, has raised $7.6 million in venture funding. The investment round, led by AirTree Ventures, also included investors from YC Continuity Fund, Global Founders Capital, Partech Ventures, and January Capital, Circular said in a statement on Oct 9.The investment round was also supported by famous angel investors, including the creators of PropertyGuru, investment Societies, Stashaway, Carousell, and Nutmeg, according to the announcement. Circular's overall valuation now stands at $30 million.Circular is using these funds to expand its unique offerings in Singapore, drill deeper into product market fit, double down on its expansion in Australia, and aggressively expand its business-to-business (B2B) offering, Circular for Business, to address the underserved startup and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segments in both markets. Circular has expanded three times in the last year and expects to grow three times more in Singapore and Australia in the following year."The problem of underutilized tech devices is enormous, and Circular aims to help curtail it with our subscription model," said Nick Ramsay, Circular's Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. According to Yonhap news agency, the South Korean presidential office, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix would be able to supply U.S. semiconductor equipment to their China facilities indefinitely without further U.S. licenses. The United States was anticipated to extend a waiver given to South Korean chipmakers on the requirement for licenses to bring US chip equipment into China.According to Yonhap, the US Department of Commerce is amending its "validated end user" list, which indicates which firms can receive technology exports, to allow Samsung and SK Hynix to continue selling some U.S. chipmaking tools to their China facilities. Once included in the list, there is no need to obtain permission for separate export cases."We welcome the U.S. government's decision to extend a waiver with regard to the export control regulations. We believe the decision will contribute to the stabilisation of the global semiconductor supply chain," SK Hynix said in a statement. CIRCULAR SECURES SEED ROUND WITH $7.6 MILLIONSOUTH KOREA EXEMPT FROM SEMICONDUCTOR TRADE RESTRICTIONS WITH CHINANEWSROOM
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