CDP Institute

GrowSari, a local B2B platform in the Philippines aimed at serving local mom-and-pop stores in the country, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with global investment firm KKR where KKR will be investing US$45 million to GrowSari to support its national expansion, as well as strengthen its financial service capabilities.

ShowHeroes Group, a video and contextual targeting tech provider based in Europe, announced its acquisition of cross-screen ad platform smartclip LATAM. The rationale behind the deal is to help ShowHeroes Group bring its solution to the US and Latin American markets. The deal price is just under eight figures, although ShowHeroes declined to share the exact amount.

Pablo Navarro, operating partner, and Alejandro Echavarria, managing partner, co-founded the venture capital Marathon firm in 2020 with Leon Papu to focus on early-stage, business-to-business startups in emerging markets. Their plan is to fund about 20 companies in fintech, SaaS and marketplaces.

Egyptian startup SplendApp, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that allows users to easily develop iOS and Android mobile applications in only 48 hours, has raised a six-figure US dollar pre-seed funding round to build out its platform and expand internationally.

Mobility startup Opibus has introduced the first all-electric bus in Kenya, also the first Africa-designed electric bus ever. Founded in 2017, Opibus is the leading provider of electric vehicles designed and manufactured locally. Its vision is to create reliable and cost-effective products designed for the pan-African mass market.

Nigeria’s Nestcoin, a company building, operating, and investing in web3 applications, has raised US$6.45 million in pre-seed funding to help it expand its global operations and invest in more products to accelerate crypto adoption and financial freedom for people in frontier markets.

Food delivery unicorn Zomato has signed definitive documents to acquire minority stakes in two start-ups — UrbanPiper and AdOnMo — for an aggregate value of $20 million, according to the company’s latest filing with the BSE. The restaurant aggregator said it will invest $5 million in UrbanPiper for a 5% stake as part of a larger $24-million round. UrbanPiper operates a B2B software platform that acts as a middle layer between restaurants and food ordering and delivery players.

Foxconn, the maker of the iPhone in India for Apple, is set to manufacture electric cars in the country, for NYSE-listed Fisker Inc., in the next couple of years. Promoted by Henrik Fisker, renowned designer of models like BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Fisker Inc will initially set up a technology centre in Hyderabad, with a roster of over 300 engineers, and within two years, in a manufacturing alliance with Foxconn, make the electric ‘global vehicle’ Pear in India.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation India Limited (BPCL) is powering India’s economy in multiple ways. Over 8.5 crore families depend on the company’s 6,500+ LPG distributors to supply their homes with cooking gas. About 1 crore vehicles tank up every day at one of BPCL’s 18,000+ petrol pumps. And more than 50 airports use the company’s high-quality products to fuel their aircraft. The Fortune 500 ‘Maharatna’ conglomerate also serves 8000+ industrial and commercial customers across multiple sectors like Cement, Railways, Paints, and Petrochemicals. In short, its scale and reach are immense.

Livewire is a global gaming marketing and gametech company that creates integrated gaming marketing strategies. The partnership with Anzu will allow advertisers to run non-disruptive ads within many of Roblox’s most popular games. As of January 2022, Roblox claims to have over 40 million games and be reaching 9.4 million daily active users across APAC in Q3 2021. It also claims 110 million global active monthly users.

Australia’s brands continue to scramble to digitally transform. The problem is, they don’t have the capability. Chronic underinvestment in people and skills, combined with high churn and a tightening talent crunch, means the wheels are spinning but marketing departments are getting nowhere fast. We can’t just hire our way out of trouble. Here’s an alternative plan.

Advertising investment is forecast to grow by 9.2 per cent globally in 2022, according to the latest dentsu Global Ad Spend Forecast report. Ad spend in Asia Pacific is expected to grow by 5.9 per cent, with digital forecast to increase 9.6 per cent to a share of 61.1 per cent of total APAC advertising spend.