Technology

Uber agreed to sell its Southeast Asia business in March, but it isn&t leaving the region. In fact, the U.S. firm is literally doubling down with plans to more than double its staff in Singapore.

Thatright. Uber is currently in the midst of a major recruitment drive that will see Singapore, the first city it expanded to in Asia, remain its headquarters for the Asia Pacific region despite its local exit. Unfortunately for customers who miss having a strong alternative to Grab, Uber won&t be bringing its ride-hailing app back in Singapore or anywhere else in Southeast Asia.

Uberown job portal lists 19 open roles for Singapore, but the company has contacted headhunting and recruitment firms to help fill as many as 75 vacancies, three sources with knowledge of Uberhiring plans told TechCrunch.

The new hires will take Uberheadcount in Singapore to well over 100 employees, the sources claimed.

Ironically, of course, Uber let most of its staff in Southeast Asia leave when itstopped serving customers across its eight markets in Southeast Asia in April — although it was forced to extend into May in Singapore. As part of its exit deal,Grab got first dibs on 500 or so Uber Southeast Asia staff but that strategy didn&t pan out as planned, as TechCrunch previously reported. Indeed, a recent report suggested that fewer than 10 percent of ‘Uberites& moved over to become ‘Grabbers&.

And yet, here we are, Uber is aggressively hiring in Singapore — but why

The original plan following the Grab deal was for Uber to relocate its regional headquarters to either Japan or Hong Kong, two sources told TechCrunch, but in recent months that strategy has shifted. Just weeks ago, the remaining Singapore Uber collective — which consists of managers and executives — secured budget to staff up and find a larger office in the name of creating a support team for its remaining Asia Pacific markets.

The plan is for the Singapore-based employees to provide services such as HR, accounting, admin, marketing and PR across Uber APAC, which includesHong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and India — although the latter has more sovereigntywith its own president who reports into the U.S..

An Uber spokesperson acknowledged that the company is in the process of hiring in Singapore, but declined to provide further details.

Sources with knowledge of discussions inside the company told TechCrunch that the decision to stay in Singapore is down to a number of reasons.

Hong Kong, which had been a frontrunner to become Ubernew APAC HQ, was ruled out because Uberlegal status in the country is unclear — a number of drivers have been prosecuted — while Japan and Australia were deemed to be too remote to be regional hubs. That left Singapore, as an established city for business with an existing Uber staff, as the remaining option.

Sources also told TechCrunch, however, that a degree of self-service was involved. Those executives and managers who managed to remove themselves from the &shame& of being shipped to Grab dug their heels in to avoid relocating their lives and families elsewhere, two sources claimed.

Talking to TechCrunch, some former Uber staff questioned whether the remaining Asian markets require remote services from Singapore, which is one of the worldmost expensive cities. Together the countries are hardly huge revenue generators for Uber and could behandled locally or other global cities. Therecertainly an argument that the continued investment in Singapore isat odds with the widely-held theory that Uber left Southeast Asia, a money-losing market,to clean up its balance sheet ahead of a much-anticipated IPO next year.

One former Uber employee who did transition to Grab noticed that the U.S. firm is now hiring for their previous role. That situation is made worse by a ban that prevented UberSoutheast Asia employees from applying to transfer to other parts of the firmglobal business. Thatdespite many being allowed to do so in the case of previous Uber exit deals in China and Russia.

The result is that Uber is hiring in Singapore, a market where it no longer offers its service and gave up most of its staff to its rival. Anything can happen in the ride-sharing space!

Anyone with even a tangential relationship to the European tech startup scene knows that Startup Battlefield is one of the most effective launching pads for early-stage startups. All the pitch-competition drama and excitement goes down atDisrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. If you want to spotlight your startup in front of the continentbrightest innovators, investors and influencers, you have only one week left to submit your application — right here.

Last year at Disrupt Berlin 2017,Lia Diagnostics — makers of the first flushable pregnancy test — won the Startup Battlefield and walked away with the Disrupt Cup, the $50,000 grand prize and an incredible amount of media coverage and investor interest. Could 2018 be your year

Herewhat you need to know about competing in Startup Battlefield.

Our TechCrunch editors, steeped in the ways of identifying hot prospects since 2007, will review every application and select approximately 15 early-stage startups. Our acceptance rate typically hovers around three percent.

Participating founders receive free pitch coaching — again, from our Battlefield-tested editors — and they&ll be thoroughly prepped to step onto the TechCrunch Main Stage. Thatwhen the fun really starts. Teams have just six minutes to present a live demo to a distinguished panel of investors and entrepreneurs. Following each pitch, the judges have six minutes to grill the team with probing questions. That pitch coaching will come in handy, you betcha!

Only five teams move on to pitch a second time to a new panel of judges, and — after much discussion, conferring of notes and maybe an arm wrestle or two — the judges will choose one Startup Battlefield champion.

The entire competition takes place in front of a live audience — filled with thousands of people, including potential investors and customers. And plenty of media outlets, of course. Plus, we live-stream Startup Battlefield to a global audience (and make it available later, on-demand) on TechCrunch.com, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

That kind of exposure carries long-term benefits for all participating startups — not just the winner. It even has the potential to be life-changing.

And, because TechCrunch doesn&t charge any application or participation fees and we don&t take any equity from startups, you literally have nothing to lose by applying. Worse-case scenario: you don&t get to compete. Best-case scenario: your startup grows into the next unicorn. Hey, it could happen.

Startup Battlefield takes place at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce your startup to influencers across Europe and beyond. You have one week left before the application window closes. Apply to compete in Startup Battlefield today.

Karma, the Stockholm-based startup that offers a marketplace to let local restaurants and grocery offer unsold food at a discount, has raised $12 million in Series A funding.

Swedish investment firm Kinnevik led the round, with participation from U.S. venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, appliance manufacturer Electrolux, and previous backer VC firm e.ventures. It brings total funding to $18 million.

Founded in late 2015 by Hjalmar Ståhlberg Nordegren, Ludvig Berling, Mattis Larsson and Elsa Bernadotte, and launched the following year, Karma is an app-based marketplace that helps restaurants and grocery stores reduce food waste by selling unsold food at a discount direct to consumers.

You simply register your location with the iOS or Android app and can browse various food merchants and the food items/dishes they have put on sale. Once you find an item to your liking, you pay through the Karma app and pick up the food before closing time. You can also follow your favourite establishments and be alerted when new food is listed each day.

&One third of of all food produced is wasted,& Karma CEO Ståhlberg Nordegren tells me. &We&re reducing food waste by enabling restaurants and grocery stores to sell their surplus food through our app… Consumers like you and me can then buy the food directly through the app and pick it up as take away at the location. We&re helping the seller reduce food waste and increase revenue, consumers get great food at a reduced price, and we help the environment redistributing food instead of wasting it&.

Since Karmaoriginal launch in its home country of Sweden, the startup has expanded to work with over 1,500 restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, cafes and bakeries to help reduce food waste by selling surplus food to 350,000 Karma users. It counts three of Swedenlargest supermarkets as marketplace partners, as well as premium restaurants such as Ruta Baga and Marcus SamuelssonKitchen - Table, and major brands such as Sodexo, Radisson and Scandic Hotels.

In February, the company expanded to the U.K., and is already working with over 400 restaurants in London. They include brands such as Aubaine, Polpo, Caravan, K10, Taylor St Barista&s, NedNoodle Bar, and Detox Kitchen.

Ståhlberg Nordegren says Karmamost frequent users are young professionals between the age of 25-40, who typically work in the city and pick up Karma on their way home. &Students and the elderly also love the app as ita great way to discover really good food for less,& he adds.

Meanwhile, will use the funding to continue to develop its product range, especially within supermarkets, and to expand to new markets, starting with Europe. The company plans to expand from 35 people based in Stockholm today to over 100 across 5 markets by the end of next year and over 150 by mid 2020.