The partnership will enable Air Europa to optimize its payment processes and expand the range of Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) offered to travelers

DALLAS, Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CellPoint Digital, the leading provider of payment solutions to the airline industry and a global pioneer of Payment Orchestration, today announced a new partnership with Air Europa, a member of the SkyTeam Alliance. Leveraging CellPoint Digital’s newly launched, transformative Payment Orchestration Platform, this collaboration will deliver comprehensive solutions to help Air Europa optimize its payments across the global regions it serves and enable the carrier to process a broader range of alternative payment methods (APMs) to better meet its passengers’ needs.

Air Europa is a fast-growing, dynamic airline with a substantial geographic presence offering short, medium and long-haul flights across three continents. With a strategic vision to expand connectivity between Europe and the Americas, as evidenced by its fleet expansion plans and increased service frequency to Latin America and the Caribbean from its Madrid hub, Air Europa needed a forward-looking approach to payments that prioritized optimized transaction routing, seamless cross-border payments, while offering a wide variety of payment options to international and domestic passengers.

“As Air Europa enters its next growth chapter, it is crucial for the carrier to have a robust payments infrastructure that will support and nurture this expansion,” said Kristian Gjerding, CEO at CellPoint Digital. “Our new Payment Orchestration Platform, with Air Europa as one of its first clients, will help Air Europa optimize its payment strategy, increase the number of APMs it supports, and expand its range of acquirers, giving the airline additional control and visibility of its financial health. As the leading provider of payment orchestration to the airline sector, we are very well-positioned to offer a hands-off, tailored solution and connect Air Europa to the acquirers and APMs needed to expand and improve the passenger experience.”

Air Europa’s Path Towards Sustainable Growth

CellPoint Digital’s Payment Orchestration Platform, which will complement Air Europa’s internal orchestration system, routes transactions intelligently to boost acceptance, simplifies and centralizes back-end reconciliation, integrates over 160 global APMs, and easily accommodates multiple PSPs and acquirers. The platform also considers the pricing, processing and acceptance currency and geographical location of each processor, increasing the success rate of transactions and reducing per-transaction costs for Air Europa.

Yago Casasnovas, Head of Payments, Fraud Prevention and Distribution, added, “As a disruptor airline targeting rapid international expansion, we need a payments partner with a sophisticated understanding of air travel transactions and payment processes. CellPoint Digital is that partner, and their Payment Orchestration platform enables us to offer travelers a fully digital experience onboard and a simpler booking experience.

In addition, Air Europa will be one of the launch clients on CellPoint Digital’s new Payment Orchestration Platform, showcasing the company’s commitment to innovation and the future of seamless, global payment solutions.

For more information about CellPoint Digital and the Air Europa partnership or to schedule an interview with Kristian Gjerding, please contact Steven Osei at steven.osei@cellpointdigital.com.

About CellPoint Digital

CellPoint Digital is a fintech leader in payment orchestration and optimisation. CellPoint Digital’s main solution is a powerful Payment Orchestration Platform that optimises digital payment transactions from cards or alternative payment methods and accelerates the deployment of new payment options. Merchants can easily scale their own payment ecosystem across the world, unify the customer payment experience across their website, mobile apps and other channels, optimise the routing of each transaction, increase conversion rates and minimise payment costs. CellPoint Digital has offices in Copenhagen, Dallas, Dubai, London, Miami, Pune and Singapore. Visit www.cellpointdigital.com to learn more. 

About Air Europa

Flying since 1986, Air Europa is a Spanish airline and a member of the SkyTeam alliance. The company’s fleet of 52 aircraft is one of the most modern and sustainable in the industry, consisting of Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 737 aircrafts that guarantee maximum efficiency and comfort for its passengers. Air Europa flies to more than 55 destinations around the world and has a strategic position in the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport hub, connecting Europe and America. The company stands out for its firm commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation, as well as for its commitment to innovation through the implementation of the most advanced technologies for the digitalisation and optimisation of its processes. In addition, Air Europa offers a high level of excellence to its passengers and is regularly ranked among the most punctual airlines in Europe.

BEIJING, Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Waterdrop Inc. (“Waterdrop” or the “Company”) (NYSE: WDH), a leading technology platform specializing in insurance and healthcare services with a positive social impact, announced its strategic integration of DeepSeek, marking a significant step forward in its AI-driven insurance ecosystem. The collaboration is poised to accelerate the Company’s business growth, enabling innovative breakthroughs in the application of large-scale AI models across specialized insurance scenarios.

By transforming traditional insurance agents into expert consultants, Waterdrop aims to enhance service precision and efficiency. The integration is also expected to lead to the development of intelligent solutions across sales support, quality assurance, risk management, and product innovation, driving a transformative leap in the efficiency of the entire insurance service chain.

“Since its establishment, Waterdrop has been dedicated to leveraging internet technology to promote inclusive insurance and drive the sustainable development of the industry through innovative, productivity-enhancing solutions. The Company is focused on improving the efficiency of the entire insurance service chain,” Shen Peng, founder and CEO of Waterdrop, emphasized the unprecedented opportunities presented by AI industrialization.

“As part of its technology-driven strategy, Waterdrop is actively exploring the deep integration of large-scale AI models into insurance service scenarios, accelerating innovation in product offerings, and continuously refining its solutions to meet the diverse needs of users,” Shen added. “By doing so, Waterdrop aims to empower individuals with access to better healthcare services at more affordable costs, further underscoring its mission to make quality insurance accessible to all.”

Utilizing advanced AI models, Waterdrop’s AI Insurance Expert now supports multi-modal interactions, including voice and text. The system excels in managing complex dialogues and assisting with sales strategies, autonomously handling voice communications and consultations for insurance products, including accident and medical coverage. The AI Insurance Expert, which engages users for up to 50 minutes per session, outperforms entry-level human agents in efficiency, setting a new benchmark for customer service in the insurance industry.

Waterdrop has introduced its Large-scale AI Model Insurance Quality Inspection Solution (“the Solution”) to further regulate and raise insurance service standards. Leveraging contextual semantic understanding and long-text reasoning capabilities, this solution can deeply analyze complex conversations, user intent, and emotional tone while identifying more subtle and intricate quality inspection criteria. The Solution ensures 100% coverage across all channels, including voice interactions and enterprise WeChat chat records, while significantly reducing operational costs. Compared to traditional manual inspections, the AI-driven inspections can lower costs by over 50% compared to traditional manual inspections (excluding initial development costs).

In parallel, Waterdrop is leveraging AI technology and big data analytics to craft personalized insurance solutions designed for specific demographic segments, including the elderly, expectant mothers, and individuals with chronic health conditions. This forward-thinking strategy addresses disparities in healthcare access, empowering historically underserved groups to obtain essential health insurance.

In 2024, Waterdrop introduced 174 tailored insurance products, accounting for more than 92% of its offerings. This transition from generic, one-size-fits-all models to highly targeted and precise product alignment highlights Waterdrop’s dedication to reshaping the insurance industry through innovative, technology-driven approaches.

For more information, please visit: https://www.waterdrop-inc.com/.

Thunes’ proprietary Network is now the only real-time alternative to the legacy system for sending payments to bank accounts in Taiwan.

LONDON and SINGAPORE, Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Thunes, the Smart Superhighway to move money around the world, today announced the expansion of its Direct Global Network into Taiwan. This expansion brings Thunes’ Pay-to-Banks payment capabilities to Taiwan, enhancing the company’s cross-border payment services in one of Asia’s most technologically advanced and financially dynamic markets.

With this expansion, Members of Thunes’ Direct Global Network can now provide their customers with real-time payout services into Taiwan in both New Taiwan Dollars (TWD) and United States Dollars (USD). This solution supports all major banks in Taiwan and enables real-time payments to both individual and business bank accounts.

Taiwan is a key hub for international trade and finance, with a strong demand for efficient cross-border payments. According to recent data, in January 2025, Taiwan’s total exports amounted to $38.7 billion, representing a 4.4% increase compared to January 2024. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s (TIER) forecast for Taiwan’s 2025 gross domestic product (GDP) growth is 3.42%, citing positive factors including increasing investments, solid private consumption and stronger exports. As such, the country’s money influx market continues to grow as Taiwan remains a key trade partner for economies around the world.

Floris de Kort, CEO at Thunes, said: “Expanding Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network with our new payments corridor into Taiwan provides our Members with greater speed, control, visibility, protection, and cost efficiencies for real-time cross-border payments in one of Asia’s most vibrant financial markets. This expansion underscores our commitment to global reach and industry-leading Quality of Service through direct connections, enabling our Members to seamlessly process payments worldwide, with the highest transaction success rates.”

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tuya Smart (NYSE: TUYA, HKEX: 2391), a global cloud platform service provider, today announced the integration of its AIoT platform with cutting-edge AI models including DeepSeek. By leveraging advanced technologies like natural language processing (NLP) and multimodal scene perception, Tuya is driving the transformation of smart devices into “active intelligence,” paving the way for AI applications to reach their full potential.

This announcement comes during a current wave of AI technology competition worldwide, which showcases numerous commercial possibilities in fields such as energy management, pet care, emotional companionship, and smart homes. However, the commercialization of AI technology still faces many challenges. According to Gartner, more than 80% of AI projects fail to progress beyond the lab due to a lack of end-to-end deployment capabilities and scenario-based solutions. To bridge the gap between AI algorithms and real-world commercialization, AIoT platforms are playing a crucial role in enabling seamless deployment.

Tuya’s deep integration with DeepSeek will have significant impact on the pet care industry through the synergy between Tuya’s AIoT platform and DeepSeek’s multimodal AI capabilities. These synergies will translate into tangible pet care innovations, and further accelerate the adoption of AI-driven solutions across the pet industry.

Unlocking the “New World” of the Pet Economy with DeepSeek

In recent years, the global pet economy has witnessed exponential growth. According to a 2024 report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the industry is projected to expand by over 45% within the next six years, with global revenues expected to surpass $500 billion by 2030.

Despite this rapid growth, the market for smart pet products remains plagued by functional homogeneity. Many so-called “intelligent” devices are limited to basic monitoring features, such as tracking weight and food intake. However, when it comes to critical needs like pet health management, behavioral analysis, and interactive experiences, user satisfaction remains low.

In one case, a pet owner noticed their pet had been lying on a smart mattress for three consecutive days, showing little movement. The device merely reported that the pet’s “daily activity level did not meet the standard.” It wasn’t until the pet showed symptoms of rectal bleeding and was rushed to the hospital that it was diagnosed with gastroenteritis. In reality, the mattress’s temperature sensor had already detected an abnormal rise in the pet’s abdominal temperature—but failed to issue a timely alert.

By integrating Tuya’s Cloud Developer Platform with DeepSeek’s advanced AI model, the pet industry will experience a fundamental shift from “single-device networking” to a fully interconnected, intelligent ecosystem. This transformation is accelerating innovation in pet care by enabling holistic, AI-driven scenarios, offering pet owners a more seamless, proactive, and worry-free experience.

A Cognitive Leap in Pet Care

The deep integration of Tuya’s smart ecosystem and DeepSeek’s advanced AI model is set to revolutionize the “perception” capabilities of smart pet products. By enabling AI-powered hardware to truly “understand” pets, this synergy is redefining the interaction between pets and their owners, ushering in a new era of intelligent pet care.

Imagine a morning where the sunlight filters through the curtains, and a pet’s smart collar quietly completes a health check. If it detects a 15% increase in breathing rate, it automatically triggers an “environmental temperature and humidity adjustment.” If it notices a 70% decrease in the pet’s usual scratching behavior, it flags “nail health requires attention.”

When a smart litter box detects abnormal fluctuations in urine pH, it instantly connects with the pet health management system, providing real-time emergency hospital navigation within a three-kilometer radius and generating a comprehensive seven-day diet and activity report for veterinarians.

Meanwhile, if the owner is away and an intelligent pet camera detects repeated pacing near the entrance, the AI system springs into action. It plays a pre-recorded, reassuring voice message from the owner, dispenses freeze-dried treats infused with calming ingredients, and sends a notification to the owner’s phone: “Separation anxiety detected. A soothing plan has been initiated. Consider increasing exercise by 30% during tonight’s walk.”

By transforming passive monitoring into proactive care, Tuya and DeepSeek are setting a new standard for AI-driven pet wellness, making pet ownership more intuitive, seamless, and stress-free.

Envisioning the Future of Pet AI Hardware

The deep reasoning capabilities of DeepSeek’s AI model are poised to shatter the rigid, mechanical logic of traditional smart hardware, ushering in a new era of AI-driven innovation. The transformation of the pet industry will be profound. AI devices will soon be able to detect subtle emotional cues, identifying hidden anxiety from the frequency of a pet licking its food bowl or predicting excitement based on the curvature of its tail movement. This evolution from mere command execution to deep emotional perception signals that AI hardware is steadily acquiring human-like cognitive abilities.

To inspire the next generation of AI-powered pet technology, Tuya and DeepSeek have envisioned groundbreaking possibilities for future pet AI hardware. Through the insights of large-scale AI models, these innovations could redefine the very boundaries of pet technology:

Brainwave Translation Collar: Traditional smart devices often misinterpret a pet’s unusual behavior as mere mischief, failing to grasp its true emotional state. This collar, however, captures and analyzes a pet’s brainwave signals in real time, converting them into an intuitive emotional spectrum. Pet owners can then “read” their furry companion’s emotions via a mobile app, receiving personalized care recommendations tailored to their pet’s state of mind.

Dream Projector: When a pet exhibits abnormal brainwave activity at night, an AI-driven projector near its bed quietly activates, transforming the wall into an immersive dream world. Each morning, owners receive detailed dream reports, complete with insights such as “Last night’s happiness index: 92, energy expenditure: 35%.” This breakthrough compensates for the limitations of traditional monitoring devices, which often fail to capture a pet’s nighttime behavior and well-being.

AI Gene Feeder: By integrating advanced DNA analysis, this feeder dynamically formulates meals tailored to a pet’s unique genetic profile, optimizing nutrition in real time. When illness is detected, the feeder functions as an intelligent pharmacist, seamlessly embedding medication into flavored gel capsules to ensure smooth and stress-free ingestion. With this innovation, pet food manufacturers can address common nutritional deficiencies in standardized diets while unlocking new opportunities in the pet health market.

Odor Socializer: Urbanization has led to an increase in social deprivation among pets, leaving many owners searching for ways to enrich their companions’ lives. This device recreates social interactions through AI, allowing pets to mark territory and engage with virtual companions using odor molecules. Simultaneously, it can identify and recommend like-minded playmates within a 500-meter radius, enabling pets to enjoy real-world socialization with compatible furry friends.

By embedding DeepSeek’s AI into the pet industry, Tuya is turning the pet tech sector into one of the most dynamic proving grounds for the AI revolution. This shift not only creates unprecedented opportunities for global developers but also fuels growing consumer expectations for the future of intelligent pet care.