CDP Institute

A parliamentary inquiry has heard the government’s COVIDSafe app has now cost taxpayers more than $9 million despite being rarely used to assist contract tracers in their efforts.

Multinational investment bank and financial services company, United Overseas Bank (UOB) is investing up to SG$500 million in digital innovation initiatives as it seeks to double its retail customers. With the investment, the bank aims to digitally serve more than seven million customers across ASEAN by 2026.

Singapore’s Mediacorp has joined forces with analytics firm Brand Metrics to offer its clients brand uplift studies about their advertising campaigns.

Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has raised US$15 million in Series A funding to ramp up hiring and continue its expansion across the continent. Launched in 2018, and with a presence in 12 African countries, Yellow Card makes it easy for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Stablecoin using cash, mobile money, card, or bank transfer.

Pricepally is a wholesale food e-commerce startup making fresher, and cheaper food items available to families and individuals by connecting them directly to farmers and wholesalers via its web and app-based platform.

Alida, a leader in Total Experience Management (TXM), has welcomed ancywax, a consulting and creative solutions firm into its partner network to serve various companies in East Africa and beyond, providing improved customer experience (CX) and analytics.

Travel tech company RateGain, which is on track to go public on an Indian stock exchange most likely by year-end, said it was buying Myhotelshop, a hotel marketing technology vendor based in Leipzig, Germany. Since its debut in 2012, Myhotelshop has provided tools to hotels for managing and distributing content and campaigns to metasearch and other partners.

Zbooni, a technology start-up in the UAE that enables small and medium-sized enterprises to process payments and grow their online presence, secured US$9.5 million in funding that will help fuel the company’s regional expansion. The technology platform supports about 4,000 SME clients and has allowed them to serve more than 150,000 end-customers thus far.

engagement platformExotel, a leading customer engagement company, has raised US$35 million as a part of its Series C funding. Exotel and tech firm Ameyo recently announced their merger. The combined entity will focus on building a full-stack customer engagement platform in the emerging markets to accelerate communication to the cloud and providing conversational AI capabilities for improved customer experience.

Loyalty programs have evolved significantly, from the simple ‘stamp card’ days to now becoming exciting, dynamic, multifaceted and interactive rewards programs customers love. In fact, according to a Point of Loyalty report, 68% of Australians say that the loyalty program they belong to enhances their brand experience.

SugarCRM is enabling full data residency in Australia to allow customer data to be stored in-country for local users.

Trend Micro has officially launched its Trend Micro Cloud One regional data centre in Sydney, with the intention of helping to uphold data sovereignty and safeguard data privacy in Australia.