Grab, Southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm, listed on Nasdaq on Dec 2nd following its $40 billion merger with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC.O).
The deal is the world’s biggest ever by a blank-check company and the biggest U.S. listing by a Southeast Asian firm.
Alibaba has reorganised its international and domestic commerce platforms into two units to better drive synergies – international digital commerce and China digital commerce. International digital commerce will bring together Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses under the leadership of Fan Jiang, president of Taobao and Tmall. It will include AliExpress, Alibaba.com, and Lazada.
Kueski, the buy now pay later (BNPL) online consumer lender has completed more than 5 million transactions online and has just announced a US $202 million Series C financing round. The funding will be used to grow the BNPL footprint in Mexico and to build out the product ecosystem for Mexican consumers.
The IAB is forecasting that digital video will capture some 60% of total TV/video ad spend this year, a growth of 100% on its share five years ago. The new 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report also notes that CTV saw a 16% increase YoY in ad spend growth. CTV and social video will be the top “must-buys” for advertisers in 2025.