Roadstar.ai on the brink of dissolution
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What: Chinese self-driving vehicle company Roadstar.ai is reportedly facing possible dissolution at the request of its investors.
Frozen accounts: According to Chinese media organization QbitAI, the Silicon Valley- and Shenzhen-based startup is currently adopting resolutions on liquidation after major shareholders began procedures to dissolve the company. The company’s funds of RMB 600 million (around $90 million) have been frozen, and CEO Tong Xianqiao has received a notice of arbitration,TMTPost reported (in Chinese), citing Tong.
Internal tensions: This latest development comes after a testy public dispute broke out among its management team in late January, when both the CEO and CTO Heng Ling accused Chief Scientist Zhou Guang of accepting kickbacks during a round of fundraising and using fraudulent data in a government regulatory report, pushing the company to fire him.
Background: Tong, Heng, and Zhou founded Roadstar.ai in May 2017 after working together at Baidu’s US research affiliate for a year, swiftly raising $128 million in a round of funding from Chinese investors that included Wu Capital and state-backed Shenzhen Capital Group.
Industry-wide problem: This is not the first case of misdeeds in the Chinese autonomous vehicle sector in the past year. Last July, Pan Sining, the co-founder of Guangzhou-based Jingchi.ai, accused his company’s CFO and others of forging signatures and illegally removing him from his executive director and statutory representative roles.
- Jill Shen
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Shots
Concentrated daily news
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The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released a list of 197 blockchain information services that have successfully registered with the filing management system, including big-name internet and financial service providers Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, Luxfax, and Ping An. Registering with the system does not mean a company’s products or services are approved for commercial purposes, said the CAC, and it will continue to closely monitor the registered projects.
Mimeng, a social media star known for clickbait headlines and controversial content, has announced the dissolution of her media company. Mimeng had shut down her flagship WeChat account in February 2019 after being accused of fabricating a story. The social media star apologized, but was censured by People’s Daily and subsequently banned from Weibo and Bytedance-owned Jinri Toutiao.
Google has stopped promoting ads in China for two websites that review virtual private networks (VPNs). VPNMentor and Top10VPN have reported that Google had refused to sell its ads to users on the Chinese internet even though it had done so previously.
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Drips
Small drops to get smart on China's tech world
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- The quiet revolution: China has more electric scooters than any other country, though you’d be forgiven for not noticing them on the streets. (Wired)
- AI in prison: Chinese authorities intend to install AI monitors in high-security prisons to constantly keep track of all prisoners. (SCMP)
- Status check: A slowing Chinese economy may mean doom for Chinese startups. (SCMP)
- Digital propaganda: The Communist Party’s mobile app Xuexi Qiangguo might well become the new Little Red Book. (SCMP)
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