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China’s used car marketplace Uxin to raise $230M via convertible notes – TechCrunch

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Uxin, a Chinese second-hand car dealer with Leonardo DiCaprio as its latest brand ambassador, is tipped to get a bag of new funding less than a year after it raised $225 million from its public offering on the Nasdaq.

The company announced on Wednesday that it’s selling $230 million worth of convertible notes to 58.com — China’s answer to Craigslist, Warburg Pincus, TPG and other investors. The notes, due in June, convert to Uxin’s Class A ordinary shares at a price of $1.03 per share or $3.09 per ADS. Upon closing the deal, each of 58.com, Warburg Pincus and TPG will obtain the right to nominate one board director to Uxin.

Uxin was trading at $2.46 at the end of Tuesday, a 74 percent decline from its recent peak in January. Its stock tanked in April after short-seller J Capital Research broadsided it over alleged frauds. Uxin denied the accusations, saying they were “false and misleading.”

The Chinese company is in a bruising fight with well-backed rivals including Chehaoduo, which pocketed $1.5 billion from Softbank’s Vision Fund in February, and Renrenche, which raised $300 million led by Goldman Sachs a year earlier.

As part of the transaction, 58.com, a 14-year-old Chinese internet firm that went public in New York six years ago, will come into a strategic partnership with Uxin in areas such as user traffic and inventory acquisition, used-car inspection, big data analysis and SaaS, says Uxin in a statement. The move follows Uxin’s agreement with Alibaba in December to set up a used car section on the ecommerce giant’s Taobao marketplace.

There are increasing synergies between 58.com and Uxin as both are exploring opportunities outside the crowded markets of China’s megacities. 58.com hit a notable milestone in 2018 after it racked up 100 million new users for its classifieds services customized for small-town populations, which include everything from job listings to trading cars.

In the same vein, Uxin has churned out reports that show demand for used cars coming from China’s lower-tier cities has surged in recent years. The boom is in part a result of a new Chinese policy that allows consumers to buy second-hand cars from a different province, enriching the variety of car options for rural residents.

“We see enormous growth potential in China’s used car market and believe that the volume of used-car transactions will overtake that of new cars in the years ahead,” said Michael Yao, chairman and chief executive officer of 58.com, which runs its own online used car business.

The deal will allow 58 Used Car to “benefit from Uxin’s tremendous offline transaction-related expertise,” added Yao, referring to Uxin’s mix of digital and physical sales channels. “By jointly integrating our online and offline services, we will be ideally positioned to significantly enhance the user experience for purchasing used cars and drive greater efficiency in this growing market.”

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Jeep’s Wild Wrangler Magneto 3.0 Concept EV Is Going Out With A Bang

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To go with that, Jeep has added Dynatrac 60 front axles (5.38:1 ratio) and Dynatrac 80 rear axles (5.38:1 ratio), along with 20-inch off-road beadlock wheels and 40-inch mud terrain tires. The whole thing is lifted by three inches compared to a standard Wrangler. The result, the automaker says, is an EV that excels in off-road situations, not least because of how controllable the power delivery is.

“When you’re rock crawling, you need to be very neat and clean with your driving,” Mike Allen, Jeep Design Chief, says, “especially if there’s a cliff next to you, you need to be very controlled with that.”

To help, Jeep has added a power selection switch. On the one hand, you can have the maximum 650 horsepower and 900 lb-ft of torque; alternatively, the standard setting tamps it down to a more conservative 285 horsepower and 273 lb-ft. Allen says the range is around 150 miles, though that — nor charging times —was never meant to be the Magneto concept’s focus.

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The Best Mods & Upgrades That Can Give New Life To A C4 Corvette

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Replacing your restrictive and likely corroded factory exhaust with a new cat-back exhaust is one of the best power adders that you can do to your C4 Corvette. The term “cat-back” refers to the section of the system that is downstream of the catalytic converter, a device that removes harmful emissions from exhaust gases.

An aftermarket exhaust with modern muffler technology will reduce backpressure, allowing more air to flow into the engine, which increases horsepower. According to the popular aftermarket exhaust manufacturer Corsa, a cat-back system for the L98 engine (the most common C4 engine) adds 14 horsepower and 16 foot-pounds of torque to an otherwise stock powerplant — all while adding a deep, muscular exhaust note that’ll make your C4 sound like a Corvette should.

Returning to catalytic converters for a moment, they’re typically long-lasting but may eventually fail by becoming contaminated, clogged, or overheated, leading to decreased horsepower. In the process of installing a cat-back exhaust, it’s worth inspecting or proactively replacing the catalytic converter itself. High-flow performance converters are available which will boost horsepower beyond the cat-back exhaust alone, yet still keep your vehicle compliant with the emissions guidelines of the EPA and local authorities.

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6 Easy Ways To Unlock Your Android Phone Without A Password

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For years, fingerprints have been the de-facto phone unlock method because of the method’s incredible convenience and relative security. While a bad actor can, in theory, replicate your fingerprint, and while some Android phones have had fingerprint reader bugs, the majority of the time it’s secure enough to trust while allowing you to access your device in less than a second.

Many modern Android phones utilize an under-display fingerprint sensor that uses either an optical light sensor or ultrasonics to analyze registered fingerprints, while others place a trusty capacitive sensor on the back of the phone or the power button.

Importantly, optical sensors are the easiest of the three to fool in the event someone gets access to your fingerprint. Law enforcement can be especially aggressive should they invent a reason to search your device, having once tried to use a dead man’s finger to do so. However, Android stores fingerprint data in a Trusted Execution Environment, an encrypted section of the phone’s memory that cannot be accessed by the main CPU or by apps.

Setting your fingerprints up can be a bit of a hassle, as some Android phones can be finicky. It may be a good idea to register the same fingerprint twice if you find that your phone’s fingerprint sensor has a hard time recognizing your preferred digit.

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