CDP Institute

South African startup Flow is announcing that it has raised $4.5 million in pre-Series A funding to automate social media advertising for real estate agencies. With its APIs, Flow connects to the websites of estate agencies and property developers and automates advertising for them on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook.

Nigerian fintech startup Arteri is helping African healthcare SMEs access multiple credit options to finance their assets, inventory and running costs at low interest rates by allowing them to access various financing options via a single application and offering management tools to help digitize the operations of these SMEs.

Xetova, a Kenyan startup, is deploying technologies that make information on market opportunities accessible to traders. It is now building a network of large, medium, and small enterprises, which will be tapped to draw insights and foresights on market opportunities and risks.

In a bid to expand the cloud infrastructure to cater to the growing demand in India, tech giant Google has signed a deal with Raiden Infotech India to pick up a data centre spread over 381,000 sq ft in Navi Mumbai through a lease of 28 years. Alphabet Inc’s company will pay Rs 1,144 crore over first 10 years with a rental escalation of 1.75 per cent every 12 years.

Soundboxes — hardware used by merchants that emits sounds every time a mobile payment is made — have taken off in India, where point of sale activity can get busy and voice alerts from the soundbox help alert multitasking shopkeepers and assistants to a transaction going through. Now, to keep pushing ahead to build out its own payments business in the world’s second-largest internet market, Google is getting in on the act.

Global advertising giant, Hakuhodo Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan, has made a strategic acquisition that solidifies their presence in the rapidly burgeoning Indian market. The company has acquired a majority stake in India’s leading brand and entertainment agency group, MA&TH (Marching Ants & Trigger Happy) Entertainment Network, headquartered in Mumbai and led by CEO Amit Chandrra.

Buildmedia, the Auckland-based creative studio considered to be a leader in off-the-plan interactive real estate sales and marketing solutions, city-scale digital twins and interactive eCommerce VR experiences, has merged with London and New York based pioneering visualisation studio, The Boundary.

Productsup, a leading product-to-consumer (P2C) software company, announced today that L’Oréal Australia, has selected the Productsup P2C platform to enhance its commerce operations. As its feed management partner, Productsup will help accelerate L’Oréal’s go-to-market strategy in the APAC region, enabling the company to reach more consumers across more channels than ever before.

GoTyme digital bank launched in the Philippines as a partnership between the Gokongwei Group and Singapore-based digital banking group, Tyme, has teamed up with the global cloud banking platform Mambu to improve digital financial services to customers. Plans are for GoTyme to operate as many as 348 digital services kiosks by the end of 2023 to enable access to secure financial services for Filipinos who are currently excluded from the formal banking system.

Southeast Asia food delivery platforms’ total gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 5 percent year on year to $16.3 billion in 2022, from $15.5 billion in 2021, according to a report from Momentum Works. Growth was mainly driven by the relatively smaller markets of the Philippines ($2.4 billion), Malaysia ($2.2 billion) and Vietnam ($1.1 billion), while larger markets – Indonesia ($4.5 billion), Thailand ($3.6 billion) and Singapore ($2.5 billion) recorded declines in 2022.

In the first six months of the year, before the macroeconomic crisis kicked in, there were rounds totaling more than $90 million in the region. Brasil continues to be Latin America`s favorite country for venture capitalists, with an increase in 15% in the number of transactions. Mexico follows Brasil in terms of the largest number of venture capital investments, with an increase in 9% in the number of operations. In contrast, Chile recorded fewer deals in the first half of the year with a 3.51% decrease respect 2021.

The unicorn proptech, which currently operates in Colombia and Mexico, digitizes the process of buying and selling properties, buying the property quickly for those who sell and assisting in obtaining a mortgage for those who are buying one. The new financing will focus on expanding operations in its home country. It wants to increase its volume of buying and selling second-hand housing and offer an increasingly extensive portfolio to its customers.