CDP Institute

This follows an Australian federal court ruling which fined Uber Technologies A$21 million (US$14 million). The court ruled the Australian arm of the U.S. ride-sharing app broke consumer law by misleading customers with warnings they would be charged for cancelling some rides from 2017 to 2021 and by using an inaccurate software algorithm to estimate fares for a taxi service it offered until August 2020.

Accenture has just acquired Fiftyfive5, an Australian-based customer insights and advisory business. The move will strengthen Accenture Song’s ability to help clients tap data insights and performance marketing to accelerate growth and innovation across Australia and New Zealand. Fiftyfive5, which was recently named B&T Research Agency of the Year, has a proven track record in delivering customer insight-driven strategy, customer insight optimized execution and performance measurement for some of the region’s leading brands.

Singapore’s online marketplace Carousell cut 110 jobs, or 10 per cent of the firm’s total headcount, as part of efforts to rein in costs amid dimmed growth prospects.

Investment activity in the Southeast Asia region will continue in 2023 but investors are expected to scrutinize valuations more closely, according to Southeast Asia venture debt provider InnoVen Capital SEA.

Wynwood House, a Peruvian startup that follows the line of global companies such as Sonder as an alternative to Airbnb, halfway between Airbnb and hotels, raised US$7 million in a seed round that will allow it to continue growing in LatAm and beyond. Forbes Peru broke the news, stating that Wynwood House is already present in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Panama, and after the round, it plans to reach Chile, the US and Spain.

Layoffs at startups in the region are part of a new wave of cutbacks that responds in most cases to the recession and ensures liquidity for the coming months.

Within days of announcing mega investments for building in Hyderabad its second data centre cluster in India, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is excited about the India market, where cloud adoption offers massive headroom for growth.

Email validation and deliverability company ZeroBounce announces the launch of its India website. The site (zerobounce.in) processes customer data strictly within India, easing concerns about the country’s upcoming privacy laws. The new site is a result of user feedback and allows ZeroBounce’s customers the option to store and process all their data solely within India. ZeroBounce hosts all its related services in India, including the front and back-end website.

Aleph Group Inc., a leading global enabler of digital advertising, connecting thousands of advertisers in emerging countries with the world’s leading digital platforms, has partnered with ShareChat (Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd), India’s largest homegrown social media company. Aleph supports the world’s leading platforms in 90+ markets across the globe where they don’t have a physical presence, enabling platforms like Twitter, Meta, Snapchat, and nearly 35+ others to expand into new markets and enabling advertisers to take full advantage of the platforms’ advertising capabilities.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) said it had earmarked A$100 billion ($67.63 billion) to help its customers lower carbon emissions by 2030, as the lender looks to accelerate its transition to net zero. Part of the amount will be used for initiatives, which include facilitating concessional loans for businesses to buy energy-efficient equipment, and financing construction of energy efficient large-scale office buildings. Australia’s fourth-largest bank also said it would reduce exposure to its largest carbon-emitting customers that do not improve their emission transition plans by 2025.

A new report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) found climate change could make banks more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face up to a threefold increase in lending losses by 2050, but the report says, that the system should be able to absorb the impact.

SK Telecom (SKT) announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore-based communications technology group Singtel, to jointly grow the metaverse business in countries where the group operates in, starting with Singapore.