NOVEMBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8ONLINE WALLET PROVIDER YOUTRIP RAISES $50 MILLION IN SERIES B ROUNDDENSO TO RAMP UP CHIP BUSINESS BY FUNNELING JPY 500B BY 2030YouTrip, a provider of multi-currency mobile wallets, revealed on October 26, that it has raised an additional $50 million in funding. For its Series B round, the money was raised from the international venture capital firm Lightspeed. Stripe, a tech company, and Snap, the owner of Snapchat, are also investments of Lightspeed.Prior to that, YouTrip raised $25.5 million in 2019 and $30 million in 2021. The Singapore-based app has turned a profit on an operational basis almost five years after it was released, chief executive officer Caecilia Chu told CNA in an interview.Currently, YouTrip processes $10 billion in payments each year, including payments made by users for international travel, purchases made on foreign e-commerce sites, and purchases made by small and medium-sized businesses using YouBiz. The consumer side of the business accounts for the majority of the payments that are processed.Companies are attempting to be cautious in an uncertain period, Ms. Chu noted. "It's important under this current climate to show investors, and even to show ourselves, that we have a solid business model where we can scale sustainably."The company's Co-Founder, Ms. Chu, stated that YouTrip attained profitability in April of this year and has experienced 200 percent yearly growth."You have to do both simultaneously in order to raise money in this current climate," she stated. Denso, a Japanese automotive supplier, plans to invest about 500 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in semiconductors by 2030, with the goal of tripling the size of its chips business by 2035 from current levels, according to the company's president on Thursday.Denso, a Toyota group supplier and one of the world's largest manufacturers of auto parts and components, has been expanding its chip business in recent years, including through partnership agreements to secure more semiconductors.Last year, it announced a joint venture with Sony to build a chip plant in Japan with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, demonstrating how the shift to electric vehicles and so-called "connected cars" has increased semiconductor demand from automakers and their suppliers."In order to expand production, we must ensure consistent material procurement." As a result, we will form strategic alliances with a variety of companies," Denso President Shinnosuke Hayashi said at the Japan Mobility Show, which opened on Thursday.He stated that the company will hire new employees to specialise in electrification and software, as well as transfer employees from mature businesses to electrification and software.NEWSROOM
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