Weekly News Wrap: China talks with delivery firms on workers’ rights; Shopee operator seeks $6.3b fundraising

And Indian e-commerce firm Udaan preps up for public listing.

From Reuters

China's delivery platform companies, including Meituan and Alibaba's Ele.me, recently joined a meeting with government regulators on improving safety and labour rights for delivery workers.

Food delivery platforms, in the spotlight due to China's regulatory reforms, have attracted severe criticism on social media for their treatment of delivery workers, most of whom are not covered by basic social and medical insurance.

Alibaba Group, its supermarket operator Hema Xiansheng, Dada Nexus and other firms joined the meeting. The meeting also included officials from the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, according to a notice on WeChat by the Ministry of Emergency Management, which also attended.

Firms should strengthen safety and labour rights protections, and not set performance indicators which harm the health of workers, according to the meeting. 

Read more here.

From Reuters

E-commerce and gaming company Sea is looking to raise $6.3b in a share and convertible bond sale in Southeast Asia's largest ever capital raising, tapping growing investor interest in the region.

This is the second major fundraising in less than a year for the $185b company, which is seeking to scale up its global expansion by testing out possible new markets, and the latest among a slew of deals in Southeast Asia.

Sea, known for Shopee, is looking to sell 11 million American Depository Receipts with the option to offer 1.65 million more as part of a so-called greenshoe option, the company said in a regulatory filing.

It is also raising $2.5b in a convertible bond that has a $375m greenshoe attached.

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From Bloomberg

Udaan, India’s largest B2B e-commerce platform, said co-founder Vaibhav Gupta will be its CEO as the startup prepares for a public listing within the next two years.

“As we embark on the next phase of our growth journey, it is important to lay the right foundations for that,” Gupta said in a statement Friday. “It is with this objective that this structure has been created that will help in the evolution of the organization, enhance agility & efficiency, drive innovation and bring us closer to the customer.”

Udaan’s two other two co-founders, Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar, will continue as board members and help transition the startup to a CEO-led structure ahead of the IPO, according to the statement.

Founded in 2016, the Bangalore-based startup invested $544m (₹40b) in the past 12 to 18 months into technology, supply chains, and credit to strengthen the business.

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