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Sentient.io Secures Real Tech Fund as Lead Investor in its Series B1 Round

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 27 October 2021 – Singapore-based AI startup, Sentient.io, announced today that Real Tech Fund has invested in its Series B1 funding round. Real Tech Fund is managed by Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd out of Japan.  Its investment in Sentient.io is the Fund’s third invested company. Sentient.io is also backed by A*ccelerate Technologies, the commercialising and venture arm of Singapore’s leading Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), global technology venture capital team from BEENEXT and several Japanese companies such as, Digital Garage Group together with ABC Dream Ventures which is a corporate venture capital firm of Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings Corporation. To date, the Company has raised more than USD$6 million in investment since its inception in May 2017.

 

Sentient.io has built a unique AI and Data platform of over 60 AI functions that software developers can “assemble like Lego blocks”.   This will empower software developers to pick from its pre-trained AI microservices that can help them to create smart applications that are powered by AI and for big data owners like government and multinational companies to generate new values from their data assets. 

 

The new fundraising is used for scaling the platform and business into Asia-Pacific markets, especially to fulfil the surging demand for Digital Transformation from Japanese corporations.

 

Mr Christopher Yeo, Founder and CEO of Sentient.io, said: “We are pleased to welcome Real Tech Fund in our Series B1 funding round.  Real Tech Holdings understands that building AI applications require a high level of expertise and a long period to master the technology.  We believe that our collaboration with them will accelerate innovative solutions and bring these to the market at a quicker pace. This will also help to fulfil our vision of benefiting humanity with augmented intelligence.”

 

The size of the AI market for voice and image recognition is expected to reach US$98.8 billion by 2025.  Despite this expected growth in AI demand, the challenges for companies to adopt AI include the lack of AI knowledge and building capabilities, the lack of algorithms that can be applied to the user’s industry domain, or the high cost of implementing AI solutions.

 

Daiki Kumamoto, Global Fund Leader and Growth Manager of Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. said: “Sentient.io has developed an easy to use platform and UI/UX that allows pre-trained microservices to be integrated into business applications via Application Programming Interface (API), and is particularly popular in Southeast Asia. One particular popular technology has algorithms that can process and hone in on voice activities from training data in order to recognise the unique English “accent” of Southeast Asia countries such as ‘Singlish” in Singapore.  As a strategic partner and investor, we will support Sentient i.o’s entry into the Japanese market and will continue to accelerate collaboration with Japanese companies”.

About Sentient.io

Sentient.io is a Singapore artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2017 by Mr. Christopher Yeo who has a strong Computer Science and Mathematics background and is also an experienced technology entrepreneur. Its aim is to enable software developers to build AI and Data-driven solutions quickly and easily by offering domain-targeted AI and Data as API services.

Sentient.io’s value proposition to enterprises is to speed up business innovation, reduce IT complexity as well as protect existing AI investments. It also enhances existing applications and is highly scalable. The early backers of the team are A*ccelerate, the commercialising arm of A*STAR, Origgin and BEENEXT. For more information, please click: https://sentient.io/en/

About Real Tech Fund

Real Tech Fund is a venture capital fund managed by Real Tech Holdings and its subsidiary Real Tech Japan. It solely invests in deep-tech start-ups solving societal and environmental issues. For more information, please click: https://www.realtech.fund

About Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd.

Real Tech Holdings support change-makers who give their heart and soul to solve societal and environmental challenges. Real Tech Holdings is a joint venture between euglena Co., Ltd (https://www.euglena.jp/) and Leave a Nest Co., Ltd. (https://lne.st/). For more information, please click: https://www.realtech.holdings

Laos Considers Reopening of Borders to Group Tours

Laos may reopen to group tours
Golf tourists may be the first arrivals when Laos reopens.

The government of Laos has begun to consider opening its borders to certain groups if the right conditions can be met and vaccination rates continue to rise.

VavaCars raises $50 million in Series B to build presence in Turkey and Pakistan

ISTANBUL, TURKEY – G MEDYA – 26 October 2021 – VavaCars, a Turkey-based online trading platform for buying and selling used cars has raised $50 million to expand its operations in Turkey and Pakistan.

Duquesne Family Office LLC (founded by Stanley F. Druckenmiller), founding investor, Vitol, plus one other new investor participated in the round.

Since VavaCars’ launch in April 2019 in Turkey, where it operates in close partnership with the leading fuel retailer, Petrol Ofisi, the Company has traded more than 10,000 cars, and has grown to 300 employees. The Company has been growing GMV by an average of 30 percent month-on-month serving the wholesale and retail market with the very best selection of consumer sourced cars.

VavaCars aims to bring trust, transparency, and convenience to the pre-owned car market. Customers can sell their cars instantly for cash by using VavaCars online valuation tool combined with a physical inspection at one of its Customer Centres, typically located on a Petrol Ofisi forecourt in Turkey.

VavaCars recently launched its direct-to-consumer offering to complement its high frequency online auction sales to dealers, where consumers can buy cars fully online without ever setting foot in a dealership; every car is fully inspected, reconditioned and delivered to the consumer’s home for free. Consumers benefit from a 14-day money-back guarantee and a 3-month warranty, for complete peace of mind. VavaCars is reinventing the car buying experience, and the new funds will be used to accelerate the buildout of VavaCars’ technology platform, physical infrastructure and brand.

In the future, VavaCars intends to expand into new markets leveraging the fuel station networks of its founding investor, Vitol.

Lawrence Merritt, CEO & Co-founder: “We intend to build the world’s most trusted used car trading platform and to make it easy for anyone to buy or sell a car without the worry. This funding round allows us to keep disrupting, keep inventing and keep simplifying on behalf of our customers. In the two and half years since launch we’ve become the number one trader of consumer sourced cars in Turkey accounting for 90% of all fully online sales. This demonstrates the power of our model and the huge market opportunity.”

Celebrating Graduates of the 11th Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 October 2021 – The 2021 Citi-Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) Community Intern Program (CIP) has come to a successful completion, marking 11 years since this unique cross-sector partnership began. The Recognition Ceremony shone a spotlight on the interns’ achievements, acknowledging their efforts and contribution to community affairs and their hard work in putting in at least 160 hours of work experience and 20 hours of in-depth training with Hong Kong’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Over the past 11 years, CIP has nurtured Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) knowhow in 848 leaders of tomorrow.

 

Officiating at the recognition ceremony were Mr. Edward Yau, GBS, JP, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong SAR Government; Ms. Angel Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau; and Mr. Chua Hoi Wai, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

 

Sponsored by Citi and co-organized with HKCSS, the program is the first-of-its-kind cross-sector collaboration between academia, business and NGO sector and offers a unique opportunity to students majoring in business studies to contribute their knowledge and expertise to NGOs and help them build capacity. The aim is to cultivate the concept of CSR in the students and provide them with a broadened understanding of the needs of the community.

 

The program gives future business leaders the chance to work with local NGOs to tackle problems within the Hong Kong community. This summer, 78 business school students from 9 local universities were selected and placed into 40 different NGOs, allowing them to put the knowledge they have gained at university to practical use.

At the ceremony, Ms. Angel Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau, said: “We at Citi are happy to have supported this great program for over a decade. Young people are our future leading Hong Kong to become a better place in which to live and work. It is increasingly important to empower our future leaders with the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and a broadened understanding of the community and social needs. I hope the students will treasure this valuable experience and learn from the insights gained during their internships, and that they will continue the concept of CSR wherever their careers take them.”

Mr. Chua Hoi Wai, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, added: “The program has been devoted to nurturing future business leaders with opportunities for understanding and practicing Corporate Social Responsibility. They can get a grasp of various social issues and the actual needs of the placement organizations. In view of the new normal and growing importance of big data, I am delighted to know that the student interns did not only apply their market acumen but also applied their knowledge of business information to assist the works of the NGOs. I would like to express my gratitude towards all partners again for supporting the program for 11 years and hope that more students will unleash their potential and contribute to the community.

Five participants were given the “Grand Award for Excellence” in recognition of their outstanding performance during the internships. They were Li Hoi Wan from the City University of Hong Kong and Tsoi Ka Wai from the University of Hong Kong who interned at Kids4Kids; and Chui Shing Hang from the Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Mak Chun Wai from the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and Yim Sheung Ching from the City University of Hong Kong who interned at The Society for Truth and Light.

Grand Awardee Chui Shing Hang of Hong Kong Metropolitan University said, “During my internship at The Society for Truth and Light, I was responsible for animation production and educational board game design, and I assisted in organizing a seminar. CIP offered me the chance to apply my business knowledge in the operation of a NGO and gain a deeper understanding of the community. I made plenty of breakthroughs and I sincerely hope that I can utilize my business profession to contribute to society.”

The 78 interns served various community groups, including low-income families, the elderly and persons with disabilities, as well as helping with environmental conservation. They provided strategic and operational assistance to the NGOs in areas including network and brand-building, fundraising, social business strategies, operations and community service support. During the program, the interns received 20 hours of in-depth training in NGO operations and pressing community issues such as the poverty gap, the ageing population and environmental concerns. They attended seminars on CSR and cross-sector partnerships, visited non-profit and social enterprises, and were given opportunities to interact with various underprivileged groups.

Photos

1.    Photo 1

Mr. Chua Hoi Wai (first row 5th from left), Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), Mr. Edward Yau (first row 6th from left), GBS, JP, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, HKSAR Government, Ms. Angel Ng (first row 7th from left), Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau with Citi executives, representatives of business schools from Hong Kong universities, representatives from placement NGOs, and interns.

 

2.    Photo 2

Ms. Angel Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau, praises the achievements and contribution of the student interns in her opening remarks during the Recognition Ceremony.

 

3.    Photo 3

Mr. Edward Yau (3rd from right), GBS, JP, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong SAR Government, and Ms. Angel Ng (3rd from left), Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau, pictured with the students who won the “Grand Award for Excellence” and representatives of the NGOs.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://new.citi.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

About HKCSS

The HKCSS is an umbrella organization of more than 490 agency members that provide over 90% of the social welfare services in Hong Kong. HKCSS launched the Caring Company Scheme to build a cohesive society by promoting strategic partnership between business and social service partners and inspiring corporate social responsibility through caring for the community, employees and the environment. HKCSS puts much effort into building capacity for social enterprises through the Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) to advance social entrepreneurship and mobilize social innovation.

Additional information may be found at www.hkcss.org.hk | Facebook: www.facebook.com/hkcssfans

#Citi #HKCSS

Hong Kong Baptist University to host QS APPLE 2021 Conference to explore emerging trends in higher education in the Asia Pacific

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 October 2021 – Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) will host the QS Asia-Pacific Professional Leaders in Education (QS APPLE) 2021 Conference with the theme “Future Rebalance: Emerging trends and workforce in the Asia Pacific” from 1 to 3 November.

HKBU will host the QS APPLE 2021 Conference with the theme “Future Rebalance: Emerging trends and workforce in the Asia Pacific” from 1 to 3 November.

Organised by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), an international higher education network specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world, and with the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand as the co-host, the conference will gather renowned leaders and experts from the higher education sector, and they will exchange their thoughts and shed light on the upcoming development trends for higher education and the strategies for nurturing talent in the region.

 

Professor Alexander Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU, said that it is an important time for higher education in the region, as the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the importance of transdisciplinary collaboration to address many of the world’s grand challenges.

 

“HKBU is proud to host the QS APPLE 2021 Conference, as the theme and topics resonate strongly with our focus on the importance of cultivating transdisciplinary education and research to meet the needs of tomorrow,” he said.

 

Mr Anton John Crace, Editor & Programme Designer of QS, commented: “As we continue to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital that we champion the crucial role which higher education institutions play in enabling the knowledge exchange which is needed to enact change on a global scale. In the Asia Pacific region, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, there is already a huge momentum for growth and development in higher education. We have already seen rapid change in research output, collaboration and impact over the past decade.”

 

“QS are proud partners to the higher education sector – working together with world-class universities and employers to understand and navigate future trends and what they mean for individual institutions. I look forward to hearing the range of experiences and perspectives from the incredible panel of experts who we are proud to have brought together for this year’s QS APPLE Conference,” he said.

 

The three-day virtual conference will feature keynotes, debates, panel discussions, and case studies spread across five tracks: (1) Crossing disciplinary divides (research innovation), (2) Thriving through collaborations (partnerships), (3) Cultivating great minds (innovation in pedagogy), (4) Finding the next big thing (strategic planning) and (5) Student flows during a pandemic (student insights).

 

A Presidents Panel on the theme Building resilient universities for tomorrow: An Asian perspective” will be held on 1 November, with Professor Alexander Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU; Professor Lily Kong, President of the Singapore Management University; Professor Joonki Paik, Provost and Executive Vice President of Research of the Chung-Ang University in Korea; Professor Yang Bin, Vice President and Provost of Tsinghua University in mainland China; and Professor T.G. Sitharam, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, as the panellists; and Mr Anton John Crace as the moderator.

 

The conference will also present roundtable and panel discussions on specific topics including art-tech, wellness, as well as artificial intelligence and ethics, university partnerships, and innovative pedagogies.

 

Please visit the official website of the conference (https://qsapple.org/) for the full agenda and other information about the event.

 

Media representatives who would like to join the virtual conference can register free of charge via QS APPLE 2021’s designated webpage (https://qsapple.org/registration?promo=PRESS). The quota for free media registrations is limited and applications will be entertained on a first-come-first-served basis.

 

Aiven Achieves $2B Unicorn Valuation with its Series C Extension

Aiven’s existing investors increase capital investment to double down the company’s exponential growth and global open-source innovation

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 26 October 2021 – Aiven, a software company that combines the best open-source technologies with cloud infrastructure, announced a $60M Series C extension at a $2B valuation today, bringing the total Series C round to $160M. This extension brings Aiven’s total funding to date to $210M. The round was co-led by existing investors World Innovation Lab and IVP, and with the participation from Atomico and others. In a testament to the growth and potential Aiven showcases in its capabilities, a number of investors increased their capital commitments to Aiven just seven months after the company’s successful $100 million Series C.

As the latest unicorn of the Nordics, Aiven is experiencing growing revenue of over 100% year on year and aims to continue maximizing its growth in a journey to becoming the global category leader in managed cloud data infrastructure. Aiven currently has more than 230 employees scaling global hubs from Helsinki, reaching Berlin, Boston, Toronto and Sydney. Following the fundraise, the company will expand its reach in the Asia-Pacific region by opening an office in Singapore.

 

The move to expand to a South-East Asian (SEA) is influenced by the high momentum of digital transformation in the region. With more and more investments allocated to digitalization and open source software, the economic growth potential and access to talent are strong, making Singapore a key market for Aiven. Future regional expansion locations include Indonesia and Malaysia.

 

“This is an exciting step for Aiven on our journey and indicates that our team is successfully delivering on our mission to champion open source and make the lives of developers better in all that we do,” said Oskari Saarenmaa, CEO and co-founder at Aiven. “The additional funding from our existing investors will allow us to rapidly expand our global footprint, significantly contribute to the open source community and support the growth of other tech startups.”

In an effort to give back to the open source community, Aiven continues its open source investment with its recently launched open source program office, solely focused on contributing to the projects that are key to Aiven’s customers. Additionally, Aiven will support promising entrepreneurs and launch its own startup program in December. The program participants will get access to Aiven’s expertise and data platform for free for one year.

“IVP originally invested in Aiven in January of 2020 behind a belief that the company’s outstanding product and platform would enable companies of all sizes to manage their exploding data needs easily and efficiently,” said Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP. “Under Oskari’s leadership, the Aiven team is delivering tremendous value for their customers, and the proof is that the company has more than quadrupled since our original investment and growth is accelerating.”

With Aiven’s fully managed services for popular open source projects like Apache Kafka and Cassandra, OpenSearch, M3, PostgreSQL and more in the public cloud, businesses can enjoy a modern, fully-functional open source data infrastructure globally in minutes. According to a recent IDC whitepaper[1], companies leveraging Aiven’s offerings report a 340% ROI over three years thanks to reduced cost of using open source solutions, increased development team efficiency, as well as increased revenue through enhanced agility and scalability.

For more information on Aiven, visit https://aiven.io/.



[1] Source: IDC Business Value Snapshot, sponsored by Aiven, The Business Value of Aiven Data Cloud, doc #US48198621, August 2021

About Aiven

Headquartered in Helsinki and hubs in Berlin, Boston, Toronto and Sydney, Aiven provides managed open source data technologies, like PostgreSQL, Kafka and OpenSearch, on all major clouds. Through Aiven, developers can do what they do best: create applications. Meanwhile, Aiven does what they do best: manage cloud data infrastructure. Aiven enables customers to drive business results from open source that trigger true transformations far beyond their own backyard. To learn more about Aiven, visit aiven.io and follow @aiven_io on Twitter.

#Aiven

About World Innovation Lab (WiL)

World Innovation Lab (WiL) is a US & Japan-based venture capital firm with capital from governments and leading global corporations in Japan and throughout Asia, including Sony, Suzuki, NTT, KDDI, and 7-Eleven. WiL helps US startups expand to Japan and Asia, and Japanese startups expand globally. With our corporate investors as partners, we invest in digital transformation. WiL direct company investments include Aiven, Asana, Auth0, DataRobot, Kong, MURAL, Sendbird, Wise, and Unqork. In addition to direct investment, WiL invests in exceptional venture funds – both established and emerging. Our mission is to be the bridge between startups and corporates across the globe – starting with Japan and the US. For more, visit wilab.com or twitter.com/wilabcom.

About IVP

Founded in 1980, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. IVP has invested in over 400 companies, 126 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. IVP investments include such notable companies as Amplitude (AMPL), AppDynamics (CSCO), Attentive, Brex, Coinbase (COIN), Compass (COMP), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Datadog (DDOG), Discord, Dropbox (DBX), GitHub (MSFT), Glossier, Grammarly, HashiCorp, Hims & Hers (HIMS), Hopin, Klarna, LegalZoom (LZ), Looker (GOOGL), Marketo (MKTO), MasterClass, Mindbody (MB), MuleSoft (CRM), Netflix (NFLX), Niantic, Podium, Robinhood (HOOD), Rubrik, Slack (WORK), Snap (SNAP), Supercell (Tencent), Twitter (TWTR), UiPath (PATH), Wise (WISE), ZipRecruiter (ZIP), and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.

Zive One Launched A Complete Customized Gift Service To Help Corporates Create Eye-catching Gifts

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 October 2021 – Nowadays the epidemic has made social distancing becomes the norm. However, according to a research report by Coresight Research, an international market research organization, the corporate gifting market is expected to exceed $242 billion this year. During the depressing days of fighting the epidemic, many companies have shown their appreciation to customers and employees. In order to make corporate gifts more innovative and targeted, Zive One, a Hong Kong gift company, has launched a bespoke corporate gift service. The complete personalized service makes it easy for companies to create gifts that are heart-melting and show the style of a corporate.

To Create Eye-catching Corporate Gifts

As an online gift shop, Zive One also provides popular gifts such as snacks, wines, and tonics, but it specializes in creative and famous gifts from all over the world, including red wine and sparkling wine of well-known brands, dragon’s beard candy that evokes childhood memories, and various novel gifts such as aged chocolate, edible flower lollipops and so on. These innovative gifts are hard to be buried during every gifting carnival, and they may relieve the depression of not being able to travel abroad. The CEO of Zive One said, that in order to avoid producing repetitive boring corporate gifts, they make their effort on providing novel gifts that are captive and meet the more detailed needs of different people. In addition, they will expand the types of gifts, and provide more unique and hilarious gifts.

The Complete Customized Services That Blow Up Brand Waves

In recent years, many companies have launched “gift wars”, such as the beauty calendars of Jo Malone, L’Occitane en Provence, Estee Lauder or other brands,  the Christmas gift box of Very, the music gift box of Xiaomi, the “Great Wall Bricks” of Tencent, and so on. They are not only creative and interesting but also show their distinctive corporate styles, which has successfully attracted the public’s attention. With the increase in the gift-giving behavior of companies, many companies hope to create more distinctive gifts, thus they are longed for a complete customized corporate gift service.

And Zive One is able to meet the need for a completely customized corporate gift service. Companies can not only customize their gift hampers, but also can create the gifts they want from the appearance of a single gift to the packaging of the entire gift box with the techniques of laser engraving, screen printing, metal wire-drawing, and so on. What’s more, some gifts can change their flavor as they want. So far, Zive One only supports mass customization of gifts, but it is a piece of refreshing news for companies for they can customize more distinctive and delightful gifts.

In addition, Zive One also provides self-branding services to help companies build their own brands and create unique or topical products. Nowadays, many brands have launched crossover marketing, such as fried chicken-flavored nail polish of KFC, the perfume of Zippo, beer washing and care products of Carlsberg, etc., created eye-catching products with a wild imagination, and ignited social media. For companies that want to attract more customers, or want to make themselves go viral through topical events, the self-branding services of Zive One will do a lot of help.

 

Simple Steps To Finish Gift Customization and Delivery

The gift customization and delivery services of Zive One are also simple and convenient. The user can select the desired gift, provide recipient information, submit the requirements for gifts and packaging, and confirm the order to finish ordering. Then Zive One will deliver gifts straight to the door of recipients. Users can log in to Zive One’s website at any time to check the delivery of an order. Thus, it spares the complicated processes of designing gifts and the process of logistics.

 

Though corporate gift-giving behavior is growing rapidly and the demand for personalized gifts is also increasing, the quality of gifts is still important for companies. The CEO of Zive One said, “We will adhere to strict inspections of equipment and quality control to ensure the quality of products. In addition, our products are manufactured in the place of origin, so that everyone can enjoy the charm  and the delighting benefits of special goods around the world.”

About Zive One

Zive One is a leading supplier of high-quality gifts, providing self-branding services and complete gift customization services, such as corporate gifts customization, business gifts customization, etc. The goal is to create the best trendy products at reasonable prices. In addition to the quality products, it also provides OEM customized product services and supports Hong Kong companies to build their own brands.

#ZiveOne

Thousands of Undocumented Migrant Laborers Living in Golden Triangle SEZ

Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos

The Lao Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare is working with Bokeo Province to solve the problem of unlawful labor practices in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.