Ttntag startup

Dat Bike’s flagship electric motorbike, Weaver. Photo by VnExpress/Ny Bui.

U.S. venture capital firms Wavemaker Partners, Hustle Fund and iSeed Ventures are the others.

The startup plans to establish a supply chain in Southeast Asia in the next two to three years.

Amit Anand, founding partner of Jungle Ventures, said: “We believe that Dat Bike will lead the mobility sector and create a new benchmark not just in the region but potentially globally for what the next generation of two-wheeler electric vehicles will look and perform like.”

It is Jungle Ventures’ first investment in the mobility sector, he said, explaining his firm decided to invest since it was impressed that the startup, with an initial funding of less than $1 million, had managed to produce its own electric motorbikes within two years.

Talking to VnExpress , Dat Bike founder Nguyen Ba Canh Son said the money would help expand production capacity and fund R&D.

Son founded Dat Bike in December 2018 after quitting his job in the U.S.’s Silicon Valley.

Its flagship and first electric motorbike, Weaver, is powered with a 5,000W motor and has a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour. Its battery can be fully charged within three hours.

It costs VND39.9 million ($1,734).

Its plant in the southern province of Binh Duong has a capacity of 1,000 motorbikes a month.

It opened its first store in HCMC last December, and Son said sales have been growing at 35 percent a month since then.

Dat Bike sources all its components domestically. Son said the benefits of this, instead of sourcing from China and other countries, include streamlined logistics and a more efficient supply chain.

A type of red sweet corn originating in Thailand has recently captured a lot of attention from both Vietnamese consumers and farmers.

The corn breed, named Ruby Queen, has been officially permitted to be cultivated and traded in the Vietnamese market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced on Saturday.

According to Nguyen Quoc Ly, director of a center specializing in plant and crop testing under the agriculture ministry, this is the first sweet corn variety that is edible without the need to be boiled or cooked.

The Ruby Queen is characterized by its dark red color and sweet taste, along with rapid growth in just 58 to 62 days, Lu continued, adding that farmers are able to harvest around 10 to 12 metric tons of the crops per hectare.

The corn breed has been in demand, said Doan Van Toa, a farmer in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang who previously planted the crop for testing purposes.

Each seed of the sweet corn is selling for VND500 (US$0.02), Toa elaborated, adding that the seed is now quite rare due to the high demand.

Ta Wee Sak Pulam, who created the corn breed, speaks during his trip to Vietnam on July 13, 2019 . Photo: Tran Manh / Tuoi Tre

A Ruby Queen corn is offered at VND20,000 ($0.86) to VND35,000 ($1.5) in the Vietnamese market, the farmer said.

Buyers can also purchase the products directly at local farms at VND5,000 ($0.2) apiece.

The prices are three to four times higher than those of regular corn varieties in the country.

According to Ta Wee Sak Pulam, who created the corn breed, the Ruby Queen is the world’s first-ever variety of sweet corn that has a reddish color.

It took Pulam and his company six years to research and create the type of crop, he added.

The number of seeds purchased by Vietnamese farmers over the past time is beyond expectation, Pulam continued, expressing his hope that the Ruby Queen will soon become popular in Vietnam, just like it did in Thailand.

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Cambodia began setting up thousands of hospital beds in two wedding party halls on Sunday to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients in a country that up until recently had largely managed to contain infections.

Cambodia also reported a daily record 618 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its health ministry said, in a spike in infections following an outbreak first detected in late February.

The new numbers took the overall tally to 6,389. Cambodia until recently had one of the world’s lowest numbers of infections. It has reported 43 deaths, all in the past two months.

“The Ministry of Health has decided to use the Premiere Centre Sen Sok to prepare for the Covid-19 treatment centre which can accommodate more than 1,500 Covid-19 patients,” Cambodia national television TVK said on Sunday, citing a health official.

Or Vandine, secretary of state and health ministry spokeswoman said she was busy in a meeting and had no immediate comment to a Reuters query. Health Minister Mam Bunheng couldn’t be reached for comment.

Images in local media showed Mam Bunheng visiting one of the wedding venues Vimean Piphob Thmey Sensok as police set up hospital beds. A Reuters photographer was denied entry and told to come back next week.

Earlier this week, the government also turned another weddig venue Koh Pich Convention & Exhibition Centre into a field hospital housing about 1,800 beds.

Phnom Penh and a satellite district of the capital went into lockdown on Thursday in an attempt to curb the spread of infections.

Under the lockdown, most people are banned from leaving home for two weeks except to go to work, buy food or for medical treatment.

By Celine Luu

Eleven people were killed and 98 injured on Sunday in a train accident in Egypt’s Qalioubia province north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement.

The train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when four carriages derailed at 1:54 p.m. (1154 GMT), about 40 kms (25 miles) north of Cairo, Egyptian National Railways said in a short statement.

People gather at the site where train carriages derailed in Qalioubia province, north of Cairo, Egypt April 18, 2021. Photo: Reuters

The cause of the accident is being investigated, it added.

More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province, the health ministry said.

The derailing is the latest of several recent railway crashes in Egypt. At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured in March when two trains collided near Tahta, about 440 kms (275 miles) south of Cairo.

People gather at the site where train carriages derailed in Qalioubia province, north of Cairo, Egypt April 18, 2021. Photo : Reuters

Fifteen people were injured this month when two train carriages derailed near Minya al-Qamh city, about 70 kms north of Cairo.

Egypt’s transportation minister Kamel El-Wazir, a former army general, has faced calls to resign from some Egyptians on social media. He has rejected these and vowed to keep working on developing the ageing rail network.

Egyptian police officers stand guard at the site where train carriages derailed in Qalioubia province, north of Cairo, Egypt April 18, 2021. Photo: Reuters

People gather at the site where train carriages derailed in Qalioubia province, north of Cairo, Egypt April 18, 2021. Photo : Reuters

Lotteria Vietnam has said that it will continue its business expansion in Vietnam amid Korean media reports of its closedown over a net loss of nearly US$9 million.

The company, which is operated by Lotte GRS under South Korea’s Lotte Group, dismissed a media report that it would cease operations in Vietnam, a spokesperson told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday.

There is an inaccurate understanding of the Korean media report, the Lotteria Vietnam spokesperson added.

Lotteria Vietnam is proceeding with its normal business while an expansion is underway.

The firm is expected to invest in a new plant at Long Hau Industrial Park in Long An Province, just outside Ho Chi Minh City, and open ten Lotteria stores in 2021.

“We are working with our parent company in South Korea to clarify its new strategy,” the spokesperson told Tuoi Tre.

The spokesperson further explained that Lotteria Vietnam is still operating its franchise business and has reached almost 100 franchised restaurants.

Entering the Vietnamese market in 1998, Lotteria Vietnam is running over 260 outlets and is among the top fast-food chains in the Southeast Asian country.

The Korea Times reported on Sunday that Lotteria Vietnam is not closing down.

“It is true that Lotte GRS is leaving the Indonesian market but we are continuing with our franchise and food retail businesses in Vietnam,” the newspaper quoted a Lotte GRS official as saying.

The paper seemed to correct its report on Friday that had cited “a Lotte GRS official” as saying “Lotteria Vietnam and others have met the requirements for closure starting this year.”

Friday’s article said that Lotte GRS was in the process of closing down “Lotte Group’s food material supplier in Vietnam, which was established in early 2020 to expand Lotte GRS’ business in neighboring Southeast Asian countries.”

“Lotteria franchises in Vietnam have all stopped operations and its headquarters in Seoul is reviewing the possibility of closing down the business within this year,” The Korea Times reported.

The report went on to elaborate that Lotteria Vietnam did not make any profit for Lotte GRS in 2020.

“Lotteria Vietnam’s book value stood at 26.8 billion won [$24 million] as of early last year, but declined to 15.6 billion won [$14 million] after recognizing 11.2 billion [$10 million] won in valuation losses,” the article said.

“Its net loss surpassed 10 billion won [$8.9 million] in one year.”

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