CDP Institute

Aspire Pte, a fintech startup, defied the market downturn trend and raised $100 million, doubling the company’s valuation.  The company has provided financial services for more than 15,000 business accounts since it’s founding in 2018.

Singapore-based fintech, Tazapay which specializes in cross-border payments has raised $16.9 million in Series A. Plans are to broaden its business across Asia and expand to other regions, including the Middle East and Europe.

VC Dila have invested in 11 companies and intend to invest in 10 to 15 more with their fourth fund. He said the investment ticket will range from one to four million dollars in early-stage and Series A technology companies. Among the companies that Dila Capital has invested in LatAm are the fintech Kushki, the healthtech Moons, and one of its most recent investments, Mattilda, a fintech focused on schools that raised US$10 million last October.

The wave (big tech cut offs) in Latam was also powerful, with startups and technology companies making significant job cuts. Unico, The Brazilian unicorn, dedicated to identity authentication, laid off 10.5% of its staff, about 110 employees. Betterfly. The Chilean company, which offers companies a life insurance policy for workers who grow with their healthy habits, cut 30% of its regional workforce. Other Latam Startups as Tul (Colombia), PagSeguro (Brazil) and others experimented job cuts around 10%.

Africa’s smartphone market shrunk by 18% in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The slump was driven by a reduction in consumer spending due to inflation, and economic uncertainties, but it was not unique to Africa as smartphone shipment dipped across major markets last year.

Qotto, a solar kits provider with operations in Burkina Faso and Benin, has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round led by the IBL group, a billion-dollar conglomerate headquartered in Mauritius with business interests in a number of sectors including energy, financial services, logistics, distribution and engineering.

Terraa, a Moroccan B2B tech-enabled food distribution platform, has raised $1.5 million pre-seed funding in a round led by FoodLabs, a European early-stage VC investor and venture studio for food, sustainability and health. Other participants in the round were UM6P Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, Musha Ventures and Africa-centric DFS Lab.

India’s premier Digital experience platform (DXP) services provider Tekno Point has joined DEPT, one of the fastest growing digital agencies in the world. Tekno Point is the consecutive winner of the APAC Adobe digital experience emerging partner of the year for 2021, 2022 and its 500 strong team of Adobe specialist will accelerate DEPT’s DXP service offering for its global client base.

Ather Energy will use Salesforce to enhance the customer experience by providing personalised interactions through multiple touchpoints such as online, mobile devices, social media, and showroom floors. Ather Energy currently has 91 experience centres in 74 cities across India and is aiming to expand its retail footprint to 150 centres in 100 cities by March 2023.

Oracle and Uber Technologies announced a seven-year strategic cloud partnership to accelerate Uber’s innovation, help deliver new products to market, and drive increased profitability. By migrating some of the company’s most critical workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Uber will be in a position to modernize its infrastructure while also accelerating its path to profitability.

Australia’s attorney general is looking to modernize the country’s Privacy Act and broaden citizen rights. Proposed changes include the right to opt-out of targeted ads, the right to erase their data, and the right to sue for serious breach of privacy.

The food delivery service cited “challenging economic conditions” and the inability to make the subsidiary operation profitable. This despite Australia bringing in 3% of revenue, and it follows its summer move to leave the Dutch market.