CDP Institute

Former Fave Execs Joel Neoh and Audra Pakalnyte have launched First Move, a founder-led early-stage fund, to empower consumer-focused startups across Southeast Asia. First Move said that the fund sets the bar high with its commitment to accelerate the success of early-stage consumer ventures. The fund provides vital pre-seed funding of up to US$100,000 and has a current portfolio of seven companies spanning Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Latin America’s US$1 billion retail media market boasts some of the highest return on ad spending in the world. Amid worsening economic conditions, marketers are turning to retailers to deliver performance advertising and results at scale. Flush with data and innovative ad formats, several retail media frontrunners are already emerging—and revolutionizing the ad industry as we know it.

Shinkansen, the Chilean fintech startup, has closed a seed investment round of US$3 million led by ALLVP, a Mexican venture capital firm. The investment aims to support Shinkansen’s expansion into Mexico, Peru, and other parts of Latin America. Shinkansen aims to provide a solution for fast money transfer and transactions in the banking and fintech sectors. The company offers a unique and simple API integration that facilitates money movement in the fragmented Latin American market.

Chari, a Morocco-based B2B e-commerce startup with embedded financing for the FMCG sector, has secured further funding worth US$1.5 million from Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) to support its growth plan. Founded in 2020, Chari allows traditional proximity store owners in Morocco to order products and have them delivered. The platform has onboarded over 20,000 food businesses in Morocco, and expanded into Tunisia and Ivory Coast.

Nigerian startup Zuvy, an invoice financing and software company, has secured US$4.5 million in debt and equity funding to scale across the country. Just out of stealth mode, Zuvy is an invoice discounting company that provides software for vendors and their buyers to settle invoices and manage payment schedules.

Kenyan e-health startup MyDawa has raised US$20 million from private equity investor Alta Semper Capital to expand its regional reach and product offerings with the aim of becoming an all-in-one health platform for users.

Japanese IT infrastructure and services company NTT has launched a hyperscale data centre in Chennai. With the launch of its Chennai 2 DC campus, NTT’s DC footprint in India has grown to 16 facilities, encompassing 3.1 million sq ft and 205 MW of IT power. The company already has a small DC facility in the city.

The American cloud-based software company Salesforce launched Salesforce ‘Starter,’ a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for MSMEs in India. The MSME CRM tool will provide sales, business analytics and email marketing tools to users through a single application enabling businesses to view customer data spread across different applications.

The second half of 2023 is being viewed as a tipping point by some analysts who see Australia’s post-COVID retail spending in tapering off.  Consumers have seen costs rise faster than wages and that coupled with rising interest have depressed spending.

The agreement gives telecom company, Telstra the ability to offer voice-only and voice plus to their customers in remote areas by replacing copper lines with Starlink Satellite rooftop connections. The launch is expected late 2023.