February, 2023 - CDP Institute - Page 5

Dates : February 2023

Social shopping continues its decidedly mixed progress. Instagram is shutting down live shopping, which lets creators tag items for purchase within a livestream. But TikTok is testing an in-app checkout that connects to a product catalog.

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A large majority (79%) of tech workers would rely on artificial intelligence for everyday tasks, compared with just 48% of the general public, according to this MITRE-Harris Poll survey. We don’t know whether AI experts share the tech workers’ confidence, which is a bit worrisome since tech workers will control the pace of AI deployment. Tech workers and the public agree that government and industry should do more to protect against AI problems.

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Mobile marketing measurement vendor Kochava is mostly in the news these days for its battle with the Federal Trade Commission over location data sales. But they also have good news. Most recent is acquisition of Machine Advertising, which provides incremental results measurement and optimal budget allocations for app marketing programs.

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Augeo offers services and technology related to live and web events, loyalty, channel relationships, and employee engagement. They just bought Brand Networks, which provides social media advertising solutions. It’s Augeo’s seventh acquisition since 2019.

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DoubleVerify keeps expanding the channels it supports with media measurement and anti-fraud services. Their latest leap is a service to verify viewability of Connected TV ads. DoubleVerify estimates that CTV advertisers paid more than $1 billion last year for ads on TV sets which were turned off.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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%.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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