CDP Institute

Strike is a continuous penetration testing platform that seeks to expand access to cybersecurity in Latin America. Penetration tests are simulated cyberattacks to detect vulnerabilities. Strike proposes that companies get offensive security throughout the year for the same price they used to pay for a one-time checkup a couple of times in the same period. Strike combines automation with a network of ethical hackers working for the company.

Morado’s value proposition is offering to the owners of beauty salons, spas, and related establishments a Marketplace of supplies of all kinds (beauty products, uniforms, furniture) giving them credits, next-day delivery, and other digital stores’ related services. The company has said it will use this financing to expand its operation in Colombia, where it already has 60 employees, and expand into Mexico, where it plans to be operational by the end of this year.

Egyptian e-commerce startup Kemitt has launched a new B2B platform as it diversifies its offering after strong growth in the B2C segment. Kemitt is a marketplace that connects product and furniture designers with consumers, handling the manufacturing, overheads, and last-mile logistics.

Nigerian fintech startup Kudi has changed its name to Nomba as it transitions into an omni-channel payment platform providing tools to enable businesses to grow.

Gupshup, a global leader in conversational engagement, announced today the acquisition of AskSid, a leading Conversational AI provider to top ecommerce and retail companies around the world. AskSid’s full-stack AI solution including the Retail AI brain, strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience (CX) offerings and will help make the entire shopping journey – across pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase phases – fully conversational.

The Defence Ministry will fund startups that can provide solutions to needs of Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced imaging, sensor systems, big data analytics, autonomous unmanned systems and secured communication systems, among other technologies.

Oracle has been working with governments at the center and states to make governance simpler and more transparent. For decades, Oracle Database is being used for securing data for almost all large and critical government applications. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI is a normal progression from on-premise to Cloud.

Involve Asia, a MarTech platform for partnership marketing in Southeast Asia, has expanded to Vietnam, marking its growing footprint in the region. Marketing partners in Vietnam face lengthy payment processes while working for marketers, and this is what Involve Asia aims to solve. The company said Vietnam is an important market for Involve Asia as it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia with a vibrant and technologically savvy population.

Society Pass Inc (SoPa), a Vietnam-based loyalty and ecommerce firm, announced the completion of restructuring Leflair’s Vietnam operations with the spin-off of Leflair Group. As a result of this corporate restructuring, the Leflair Group is set to become Southeast Asia’s next lifestyle retail super distributor nexus, evolving from a single discounted platform to a lifestyle retail ecosystem, providing shoppers with an integrated and unique shopping experience from online to offline.

SoftBank Latin America Fund announced today that it is spinning out its early-stage Latin American investment arm into a new autonomous entity, dubbed Upload Ventures. The new fund will back early-stage companies in the region at a pace of about $100 million per year. The Latin America Fund remains intact, according to the source, who said it will continue to deploy funds. Originally, it had raised $5 billion and once that was deployed, it planned to invest another $3 billion in LatAm startups.

Just as in the 90s there was too much conversation around the Web and doing things online, we are now living in an era where the hottest buzzword are Web3, DeFi and decentralization. Latin America has become a hotbed for new DeFi and Web3 companies. With abundant tech-skilled talent, a history of unreliable centralized institutions, and the disruptive startup culture that has boomed for at least a decade, the region is particularly positioned to be a disruptive lab for the next generation of Internet companies.

Kenyan startup Neural Labs is using AI-enabled medical imaging to facilitate real-time diagnosis of various respiratory, heart and breast diseases and pathologies.