CDP Institute

Simpro, a field service management software company based in Brisbane, Australia, today announced that it raised $350 million from K1 Investment Management with participation from existing investor Level Equity, the new funding brings Simpro’s total capital raised to nearly $400 million.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is going hard on retail with the unveiling of AI-enabled ‘brand discovery and deals’ app Cheddar in the same week as the launch of in-app shopping platform Little Birdie.

As COVID-19 restrictions slowly lifted over the past year, retailers realised that consumer shopping habits created in lockdown were here to stay.

The latest data from e-commerce aggregator iprice analyzed the performance of the top e-commerce companies in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to determine which e-commerce sites are holding the most of the market share in the said markets, and which of them have been successful in drawing social engagement.

As consumers become more discerning and connected, Zalora, which is Southeast Asia’s leading fashion and lifestyle e-commerce player, is seeing incredible innovations happening in the retail sector that completely reimagines the shopping experience.

MercadoLibre Inc. will soon allow Mercado Pago customers in Brazil to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets. More than four out of five Latin American consumers (83%) are open to using more cutting-edge payment methods and technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, QR codes and biometric authentication-based transactions, according to a recent survey.

The eCommerce market in Latin America generated more than $19.4 billion in 2019, with an annual growth rate of 3.5%. According to Statista data, user penetration in the region is 57.4% and is expected to reach 61.1% by 2023. Additionally, the average revenue per user is around $131, although that is expected to grow as consumer confidence in shopping online increases.

Mobiz, a South African startup integrating hyper-personalization into mobile marketing, has raised a pre-Series A round of $4 million from HAVAÍC, Futuregrowth, Launch Africa, Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures, CapaciTech and Endeavor’s Harvest Fund. The investment comes as the startup is ramping up efforts to expand into the U.S. and double down on marketing, sales and account management. Part of the investment will be used to hire more staff in South Africa and support the commercial expansion to the U.S.

MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading fintech ecosystem, has announced the successful rollout of Neuron, the proprietary core banking software it developed and launched earlier this year.  Having begun life as a ride-hailing app for two- and three-wheeler vehicles back in 2018, MNT-Halan has morphed into a super app of sorts, and in the process become Egypt’s largest and fastest-growing lender to the unbanked.

Nigerian shared mobility startup Treepz has closed out its seed round at US$2.8 million and expanded to Uganda with the acquisition of bus company Ugabus. Founded in 2019 and known as Plentywaka until its September rebrand, Treepz operates a digital platform allowing passengers to book daily rides along fixed routes. It also serves as an aggregator for bus travel companies across 21 cities in Nigeria, allowing transport operators to replace manual servicing and ticketing with digitalized offerings and services.