Daily Briefing: Government to put an age limit on e-scooter users; Hummingbird Bioscience raises $25.88m in series B funding

And Singapore based VC firm Decacorn Capital makes first investment in Europe.

From ChannelNews Asia:

New restrictions on electric scooters in Singapore will come into place after the Government said on 4 December that it has accepted all recommendations put forward by a panel studying the use of the devices.

No start date has been announced for the implementation of the regulations, which include a minimum age of 16 for e-scooter users to ride on cycling paths. Those under the age of 16 will have to be supervised by adults.

Before riding on cycling paths, e-scooter users will also have to pass a theory test – a requirement which will be extended to electric bicycle users before they are allowed to ride on cycling paths and the roads.

The latest restrictions come after e-scooters were banned from Singapore's footpaths on 5 November, with offenders facing fines of up to $2,000 and jail time of up to three months once the ban is strictly enforced from 2020.

The ban followed a rise in the number of accidents involving e-scooters, including a fatal collision involving an elderly cyclist in September.

Read more here.

From DealStreetAsia:

Precision antibody therapeutics firm Hummingbird Bioscience has raised $25.88m (US$19m) in a Series B funding round co-anchored by Mirae Asset Venture Investment and GNTech Venture Capital.

Existing and new investors including Heritas Capital, Seeds Capital, Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, and Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital, also participated in the funding round that brings Hummingbird’s total funding to more than $81.72m ($60m).

The successful close of its Series B round comes barely five months after Hummingbird Bioscience, which is located in Singapore, Houston in Texas, and South San Francisco in California secured an undisclosed amount in its extended Series A funding round.

In February, the company received a $17.84m (US$13.1m) product development grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The grant will support clinical trials of its anti-VISTA antibody for the treatment of solid tumours and lymphomas unresponsive to existing therapies.

Read more here.

From e27:

Singapore-based cross-border VC firm Decacorn Capital has announced its entry into the European market with an investment in Estonian energy-tech startup GridIO.

The VC firm already has a presence in Israel and the US, besides Singapore.

It can adjust the power consumption of major electrical devices when, for example, wind turbines suddenly stop due to unexpected wind conditions. This avoids power disruptions, and households get paid for the capacity freed up that way.

GridIO says that it is already eyeing electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps as the next generation of devices to integrate into its platform and growing the home ecosystem.

Read more here.