CDP Institute

Singapore-based Ad-Tech innovator, Infomo announced the successful completion of its M & A initiative with Dehradun-founded and based TorcAI Pvt Ltd (“TorcAI”). TorcAI is a world-recognised leader and innovator in artificial learning (“AI”) and machine learning (“ML”) technologies for the massive global digital advertising and marketing industries.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which spent $9.1 billion in Asia Pacific in the decade between 2012 and 2022, announced it plans to spend even more, $13.2 billion in the next five years to expand cloud infrastructure in Sydney and Melbourne.

Braze will acquire North Star, its Australia and New Zealand reseller, in 2024 to provide it a direct presence in the ANZ market and to incorporate local expertise. North Star’s customers include Canva and KFC Australia.

Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak announced that it has acquired a majority stake in iPrice, a Malaysia-based price comparison platform. Through this strategic investment, iPrice has the opportunity to accelerate its growth by leveraging the synergies between the two groups.

While 2022 might have been a hard year for many in the agency and tech sectors, investment in advertising across Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan remained positive, jumping by almost US$55 billion in 2022 – an overall increase of 12%.

Mexican startup Pacto, a point-of-sale (POS) platform with integrated payments for restaurants and bars, announced a US$4 million seed round led by DILA Capital. The capital will be used to increase its engineering, product development, and customer service teams. With the new round, Pacto already has a total financing of US$6 million. It also has an alliance with Getnet Mexico.

Kaszek Ventures, one of Latin America’s first venture firms, has raised $975 million across two funds. Since 2011, Kaszek has backed more than 120 companies, which the firm says collectively have raised more than $15.5 billion in capital. Portfolio includes companies in a range of industries such as fintech, enterprise/SaaS, proptech, insuretech, health tech, edtech, e-commerce, food tech, climate tech, biotech and blockchain. They include Nubank, QuintoAndar, Kavak, Creditas, NuvemShop, Bitso, Gympass, Notco, MadeiraMadeira, Loggi, Konfio, Technisys, Kushki and Cora.

Equator, a climate tech venture capital firm focused on sub-Saharan Africa, has reached an initial close of its first fund with $40 million in commitments. Its limited partners include BII, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), the Shell Foundation and impact investor DOEN Participaties, according to the company’s statement.

Shuttlers, a Nigerian shared mobility company that allows individual and corporate passengers to take rides on multiple bus routes via an app, has raised $4 million in a new funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a Pan-African focused venture capital firm.

The U.S International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has made equity investment to the tune of $25 million in a new fund by Pan-African venture capital firm Novastar Ventures, to back founders building agriculture and climate solutions.