To get a roundup of TechCrunchâs biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Daily Crunch. I’ll be your guide moving forward as Haje leads our Startups Weekly newsletter. We have some exciting ideas for making the Daily Crunch better than ever. In the meantime, let’s get to it! â Christine The big news today is that Appleâs partner Foxconn is investing $500 million in manufacturing plants in South India, which is âthe latest in a series of bets from the key Apple contract partner as it expands its base in the South Asian market.â Meanwhile, Africa-based asset financing platform M-Kopa took in a whopping $250+ million in new funding that included $55 million in equity and over $200 million in debt. The company offers underbanked African customers access to âproductive assetsâ and the ability to pay for them via digital micropayments. Over at ZestMoney, founders Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman told employees today that they were resigning. This is âthe latest twist in the fate of the Indian fintech whose ability to underwrite small ticket loans to first-time internet customers once drew the backing of many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs.â Cold-chain startup Figorr raises $1.5 million as it backs the rollout of data-driven perishables insurance. Blackstone sells its IBS Software stake to Apax for $450 million. U.K. pension startup Smart secured $95 million to expand internationally and make acquisitions. |