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PR Newswire

Appen provides data solutions featuring unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the Chinese market

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SHANGHAI, March 18, 2022 — IDC recently analyzed the status quo of enterprises in the development and construction of AI applications, and summarized the characteristics of data services required for current AI model training in rising to data service challenges and needs. To tackle the development trend of AI data services, Appen, a world-leading AI training data service provider, now provides data solutions featuring unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the Chinese market.

  1. AI is being employed and implemented across a wide range of industries with the rapid development of AI market in China.
  2. Enterprises find their data service needs are changing dramatically as they need to handle privacy concerns, the lack of data, and other challenges in adopting AI.
  3. To accelerate the process, they are attaching increasing importance to AI data, as well as the quality, efficiency, and safety of AI data services rendered.
  4. As a world-leading AI training data service provider boasting unique advantages in the Chinese market, Appen furnishes enterprises with full-stack acquisition and annotation services and solutions for images, texts, voice, audio, and video in the AI lifecycle. It provides OTS dataset products and intelligent data annotation On-Promise/SaaS/Hybrid platforms to be more responsive to the various needs of customers, manifesting outstanding advantages in the fields of foreign languages and autonomous driving data services.

AI Market in China

In recent years, the AI data service market has been fueled by the increasing need for rich and high-quality data sources brought by the rapid development of AI market in China. As shown in the figure below, IDC predicts that in 2021, the overall size of AI market in China will reach 8.22 billion US dollars (about one-fifth of the counterpart in the United States), and it’s expected to reach 16.3 billion US dollars by 2025. IDC forecasts that the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the AI market in China will surpass that of the United States and the rest of the world in the post-pandemic era.


Enterprises are shifting their exploration of artificial intelligence technologies from single applications to multiple business scenarios and evolving from informatization to intelligentization, a more advanced stage, as the digital transformation enters "deep-water areas". Enterprises begin to employ AI-generated audio content, knowledge graphs, multi-modal interactions, and other technologies in their production environments. The application scenarios of such technologies have been expanded from simple identity authentication and intelligent customer services to intelligent process automation, meeting assistants, intelligent writing, virtual assistants for employees, AI digital humans, and so on. In terms of business effects, the business value of AI applications is becoming clearly visible and even assessable.

With a predominant value-added effect, AI has promoted the intelligent transformation of all walks of life, yet the implementation process is fraught with challenges. Problems occur in strategies, talents and teams, data, skills, processes, and many other areas. In a survey conducted in 2021, IDC found that the top three challenges faced by enterprises worldwide when adopting AI were high upfront costs, the lack of machine learning operations (MLOps) expertise, and the lack of data science expertise. Privacy concerns and the lack of training and testing data were also too serious to be ignored.


The widespread introduction of deep neural networks into industry applications has raised massive data needs, yet business effects cannot be significantly improved by continuing to optimize the model codes after such models are relatively mature. Therefore, optimizing the training data has become an important means for greatly improving the accuracy of AI models.

In this context, enterprises are devoting more resources to the acquisition of high-quality training data, not just model training, in their AI R&D. IDC found that, of the global enterprises that have been interviewed, 85% believe they spent more than half of their AI development investment to data preparation.

Appen China MatrixGo Data Annotation Platform

The MatrixGo high-precision data annotation platform is a platform product that Appen independently developed after entering the Chinese market. It includes Appen’s overseas practical experience, yet also fits the characteristics of the local market. Integrating rich and efficient annotation tools, it has powerful workflow scheduling capabilities and can support various annotation projects in rich scenarios with massive data by incorporating resources from its teams, supplier teams, and millions of crowdsourcing personnel. The platform can be delivered through private deployment, software as a service (SaaS), or hybrid cloud deployment, where SaaS can be integrated with privately deployed file service to further ensure compliance of data flow and strengthen data security management.

As a professional segmented solution-level product platform, it can provide functions for all core scenarios in the project execution process, including data requirement proposal and strategy formulation, data collection, high-precision annotation/classification, progress tracking and quality control, and full data delivery. It effectively integrates AI and model capabilities, enables large-scale man-machine coordination, and supports massive data acquisition, multilingual and multi-scene speech transcription and translation, complex content relevance evaluation, computer vision target recognition and tracking, and 3D object tracking in point clouds, semantic segmentation, and other functions to provide customers with high-quality AI training data in e-commerce, online social networking, content services, smart healthcare, smart hardware, autonomous driving, and other fields.


Appen’s MatrixGo platform has delivered the acquisition and annotation services for various AI applications, supporting and serving more than 130 customers and 700 projects in China in 2021.

Best Practices

  1. It’s a Chinese listed company specialized in intelligent voice and AI. As a typical representative of AI technology providers, it enjoys substantial shares in AI voice and semantics markets in China. It has a large demand size for data services, and about half of its expenditure is spent on external services in the form of integrated acquisition and annotation. The other half of demand is processed internally, for example, through its internal crowdsourcing platform.
    Why they chose Appen: 1) The efficiency of communications on the standards of data acquisition and annotation services is high; 2) Appen responds quickly during the project cooperation. 3) The quality evaluation results are good.
  2. As a typical representative of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, it reported that the number of global monthly active users of its mobile operating system and content ecosystem was about 400 million in 2021. With the expansion of business scenarios, it found that the needs for data services were growing rapidly. As its internal annotation team could not meet the business needs, it began to cooperate with Appen in 2021. Data annotation services it purchased have covered four domains, namely NLP content understanding, AI assistant voice recognition, computer vision (CV) picture or video taking, and the Internet of things (IoT) device sensors.
    Why they chose Appen:1) The high-quality annotation could meet project progress requirements. 2) Appen’s relatively comprehensive business coverage could meet the requirements of NLP, CV, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and other businesses. 3) Appen has demonstrated a good service attitude. It worked actively to solve new problems after the process for new projects was established and strove to improve project delivery quality.

The demand for data resources in AI development is driving the evolution of the data service market and bringing many opportunities. Nowadays Appen is providing tens of millions of data per month. It serves autonomous driving, technologies and the Internet, healthcare, finance, and other industries in the Chinese market, and features unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the market.

PR Newswire

VIVOTEK Unveils Its New VSaaS, VORTEX, at ISC WEST

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TAIPEI, March 15, 2022 — VIVOTEK (TWSE: 3454), the leading global IP surveillance provider, is pleased to announce the solution preview of VORTEX, VIVOTEK’s new cloud-based video surveillance as a service (VSaaS). By integrating deep-learning based cameras with cloud hosting services, VORTEX is able to process multiple data streams (video, audio, and analytics metadata), issue incident alerts, and perform video searches using metadata. The service is built on cloud architecture, making multi-site surveillance both simple and cost effective. VORTEX is accessible via APP or web browser, making surveillance control and management easier and smarter than ever. VORTEX will be on display at VIVOTEK’s booth (No. 22015) at ISC WEST 2022.

The official name of VIVOTEK’s proprietary cloud-based VSaaS is VORTEX. VORTEX is smart and easy. VORTEX features cutting-edge AI technology that provides users with real-time detection, warning, and search capabilities. VORTEX is accessible via APP or web browser, making surveillance control and management easier and smarter than ever. VORTEX will be on display at VIVOTEK’s booth (No. 22015) at ISC WEST 2022.
The official name of VIVOTEK’s proprietary cloud-based VSaaS is VORTEX. VORTEX is smart and easy. VORTEX features cutting-edge AI technology that provides users with real-time detection, warning, and search capabilities. VORTEX is accessible via APP or web browser, making surveillance control and management easier and smarter than ever. VORTEX will be on display at VIVOTEK’s booth (No. 22015) at ISC WEST 2022.

"The official name of VIVOTEK’s proprietary cloud-based VSaaS is VORTEX. VORTEX is a key component of our development strategy, which focuses on centralizing information, data, and video content in a secure storage space and breaking free from conventional spatiotemporal restrictions to enhance security and efficiency," says ShengFu Cheng, Vice President of Strategic Business of VIVOTEK. "VORTEX is intuitive and time/cost-efficient. Recognizing the tremendous potential[1] of hosted surveillance services, we have selected North America as the initial release location. VORTEX will be a strong competitor in the VSaaS market."

VIVOTEK’s VORTEX is easy to set up and use, smart, and flexible. No camera or back-end software configuration is needed. Just set up the user account and scan the QR code, and the camera will automatically connect to the cloud and start recording. Creating custom analytics rules is simple and intuitive. Alert notifications are set automatically for both app and web browser usage. The camera firmware, including analytics, can be maintained and deployed remotely after confirmation by the user. Because it incorporates deep-learning technology, VORTEX offers several major features that increase efficiency and effectiveness, saving both cost and time when operating the system. Users can receive alerts and review, archive, and share video footage through a mobile device anywhere, anytime. Video searches filtering attributes of people and vehicles across cameras can be done within seconds. By leveraging VIVOTEK’s expertise in the design and manufacture of network cameras, VORTEX provides a flexible VSaaS camera portfolio at an affordable price to help users meet a wide range of installation needs on a budget.

VORTEX is currently targeted at small and medium businesses, and is perfect for chain stores that are spread across multiple locations and looking for a centralized management surveillance system. VORTEX is a one-stop solution that allows managers to oversee multiple stores in real-time. The service can be set up effortlessly with minimal hardware and maintenance costs. Using the mobile app or web browser, users can monitor different sites simultaneously, precisely identify specific targets, conduct 24/7 video surveillance, and instantly back up data to the cloud. VORTEX ensures the integrity of stored data and employs deep-learning AI to increase the efficiency and accuracy of detection over time. Smart, effective, and easy-to-use, VORTEX is poised to become the preferred solution for SMBs in the VSaaS market.

"VORTEX features cutting-edge AI technology that provides users with real-time detection, warning, and search capabilities," Cheng continued. "The service can also be coupled with the VORTEX Essential and Premium camera series, including our bullet, dome, and fisheye cameras."

We continuously update our service content. Please follow us for the latest updates on our products and services.

[1] The 2021 surveillance analysis report, global surveillance software revenues in 2022 will amount to USD 1.5 billion, a figure that will rise to USD 2.4 billion by 2025, for a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10%. The CAGR for market turnover of other software devices and function/technology licenses is expected to exceed 12%.

About VIVOTEK Inc.

VIVOTEK Inc. (TAIEX: 3454) was listed on the TWSE in 2011, and we have established offices in the U.S., Netherlands, India, Mexico, and Japan. As one of the world’s most trusted IP surveillance solutions provider, we deliver intelligent security, control, and management for a safer society.  With more than 20 years at the forefront of the industry, we’ve driven breakthroughs in R&D, and built a solid technological foundation for the industry. Via a global network of countries, we serve system integrators building intelligent solutions for end-users around the world. 

Founded in Taiwan in 2000, we are widely recognized for our expansive technical capabilities in imaging and audio, specializing in IP cameras, video management software, and edge based AI video analytics. In 2017, we joined the Delta Group, a global leader in power and thermal management solutions, to serve as the security and intelligence core of Delta Building Automation Business. In 2021, we unveiled new branding in its transformation towards the IoT age, including logo, brand identity, and a new brand ethos under the slogan "We Get The Picture." For more information, please visit www.vivotek.com.

 

PR Newswire

Lacework Ranked #6 on Forbes America’s Best Startup Employers List

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Forbes recognizes Lacework for accelerated growth and strong employee engagement as cloud security sector booms

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 12, 2022 — Lacework, the data-driven security company for the cloud, today announced the company ranked sixth in Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers 2022. The list, in collaboration with Statista, ranks the top 500 U.S. startups excelling in employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and company growth. This ranking recognizes Lacework’s commitment to creating a supportive, learning culture for new employees and its accelerated growth since the start of the global pandemic. Lacework reported more than 3x year-over-year revenue, customer, and employee growth in the last fiscal year. 

As more businesses shift their data to the cloud and threats become more frequent and sophisticated, there is increasing demand for innovative businesses that can address today’s security challenges. With an obsessive focus on delighting customers and delivering outcomes for them, Lacework is meeting that demand with a transformative approach to cloud security. This purpose-driven approach contributed to the company’s growth over the past two years and its rise to the top 10 on this year’s America’s Best Startup Employers list after ranking 98th in 2021.

Lacework co-CEOs David Hatfield and Jay Parikh are devoted to establishing a company culture based on transparency, openness, and teamwork as the company continues its rapid growth. Lacework now has over 1,000 employees – 85% of which were hired after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. To drive strong engagement and a sense of shared purpose, Lacework maintains a flat organizational structure with practices including ensuring all new hires share feedback on their employee experience with executive leadership after a month on the job. Lacework also organizes monthly all-company Q&As and all-hands meetings where employees can ask questions and provide feedback. In addition, Lacework provides its employees with opportunities to improve their work/life balance through all-company recharge days, scheduled "no meeting" days, and a comprehensive employee wellness program.

"We’ve purposefully invested as much effort into building an open learning culture where employees can thrive at Lacework as we have building the Polygraph® Data Platform to dramatically reimagine the traditional approach to security," said Lacework Co-CEO David Hatfield. "Our culture is built every day through the efforts of every Lacer. This recognition is a validation of their hard work building an environment where employees feel valued and appreciated for their innovative work."

As a result of its ongoing growth, Lacework raised a $1.3 billion Series D round in November 2021, the largest in cybersecurity history. Lacework also recently unveiled a series of announcements, including the newly introduced Polygraph Data Platform, further validating the company’s vision, market position, and approach to security. This momentum fuels Lacework’s mission to build the business over time with better outcomes and opportunities for customers, partners, and employees.

Additional Resources:

  • For more information about how to join the Lacework team, visit our careers page.
  • Check out our blog to learn more about Lacework and what’s happening across the security industry.
  • Become an expert on security fundamentals and learn more from your security and developer peers through Lacework Academy and the Lacework Community.
  • Read what our customers have to say about the Lacework Polygraph Data Platform.

About Lacework

Lacework is the data-driven security company for the cloud. The Lacework Polygraph® Data Platform automates cloud security at scale so our customers can innovate with speed and safety. Only Lacework can collect, analyze, and accurately correlate data across an organization’s AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes environments, and narrow it down to the handful of security events that matter. Customers all over the globe depend on Lacework to drive revenue, bring products to market faster and safer, and consolidate point security solutions into a single platform. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Lacework is backed by leading investors like Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Franklin Templeton, Durable Capital, GV, General Catalyst, XN, Coatue, Dragoneer, Liberty Global Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures, among others. Get started at www.lacework.com.

Media Contact: 
Inkhouse PR, Danielle Vincent 
Email: lacework@inkhouse.com 
Phone: 425.563.3141

PR Newswire

Nintex Appoints Ricoh New Zealand as a Reseller Partner to Support Increasing Customer Demand for Intelligent Digital Business Solutions

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MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 21, 2022 — Nintex, the global standard for process intelligence and automation, today announced Ricoh New Zealand as its newest reseller partner to support growing customer demand for intelligent digital business solutions that can transform operations, reduce costs, save time, and improve customer and employee experiences. 

"We are excited to welcome Ricoh New Zealand to our global partner network," said Amy Degnan, Manager Partner Group ANZ, Nintex. "Ricoh New Zealand forms a key element of our local channel strategy that will help organizations accelerate their digital business initiatives with the power of the Nintex Process Platform."

The appointment follows Ricoh New Zealand’s evolving transition to a trusted digital services partner organisation, focused on offering digital workflow and automation solutions to businesses and government agencies undergoing rapid transformation, supporting end-to-end process automation, and freeing up time to create meaningful work for employees.

"As New Zealand businesses look to digitally accelerate, it is more critical than ever that they find ways to quickly automate labour intensive processes especially in a competitive job market and with a shortage of skilled workers," said Roly Smoldon, General Manager Digital Services, Ricoh New Zealand. "Nintex is a growth-oriented partner, which is in line with the direction of our business, and we’re thrilled to take their technology to market."

With the complete capabilities of the Nintex Process Platform including Nintex Promapp®, Nintex Workflow, Nintex Forms, Nintex RPA, Nintex Mobile and App Studio, Nintex Drawloop® for Salesforce, Nintex AssureSign®, and Nintex Analytics, turning manual business processes into fully digital experiences has never been easier.

Solutions built with Nintex complement Ricoh New Zealand’s existing portfolio of products, supporting enterprises as they undergo rapid transformation by digitising manual forms, adopting continuous process improvement and achieving greater compliance across their organisations.

"We understand that to digitise repeatable processes such as compliance, financial workflows, incident management, manufacturing automation, employee leave applications and overtime approvals will be compelling for businesses with hybrid workforces who require secure access to documents and digital workflows from anywhere on the device of their choice," adds Smoldon.

The Ricoh New Zealand appointment follows a successful reseller partnership between Nintex and Ricoh in other countries, including in Australia where Ricoh Australia has been successful as a digital services partner in delivering value and business acceleration across a range of markets from aged care and education, to financial services and manufacturing.

Nintex will support Ricoh New Zealand with sales training, certification programs and marketing resources to deliver sales readiness, channel enablement, and technical excellence to ensure mutual business success.

Media Contact
Laetitia Smith Nintex laetitia.smith@nintex.com

About Nintex
Nintex is the global standard for process intelligence and automation. Today more than 10,000 public and private sector organisations across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Process Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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PR Newswire

Xiaomi Strengthens Data Protection with Independent Audit of Compliance

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BEIJING, Feb. 3, 2022 — Xiaomi, a consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core, has today announced the findings of an independent review into its data protection compliance.

Xiaomi appointed TRUSTe LLC, a subsidiary of TrustArc, to conduct an independent audit of its data protection and security management. The review comprehensively evaluated whether the processing of personal information conducted by Xiaomi is performed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU). The TRUSTe review summary states: "The measures described in the GDPR Validation Assessment were suitably designed to provide reasonable assurance" that all 40 GDPR Validation Requirements would be met.

As the first ever Chinese enterprise to receive certification from TRUSTe, Xiaomi continues to submit to outside scrutiny when it comes to data protection and user privacy, adopting the GDPR of the EU compliance assessment since 2018.

The Validation Requirements focus on program-level measures in eight areas: Integrated Governance, Risk Management, Resource Allocation, Policies and Standards, Processes, Awareness and Training, Monitoring and Assurance, and Reporting and Certification. A member of the Global Privacy Solutions team from TRUSTe validated that Xiaomi has met the applicable Validation Requirements.

Cui Baoqiu, Xiaomi Vice President and Chairman of Xiaomi Security and Privacy Committee, said the GDPR Validation Assessment is an important step in continuously enhancing the company’s data and security compliance. Xiaomi strives to uphold the highest standards of user privacy policies and practices, particularly for its users in the EU, he added.

Cui Baoqiu stated: "We regularly engage with TRUSTe, as well as other credible institutions globally to warrant that Xiaomi’s user privacy protection, including GDPR compliance, keeps improving and perfecting its practices to offer our users reliable and trustworthy products and services. I’m very pleased to see that Xiaomi has completed TRUSTe’s annual audit of GDPR privacy compliance, which demonstrates our commitment to privacy protection."

TrustArc, which is based in the U.S., is a leading global privacy compliance and risk management company with decades of deep expertise and leadership in building and maturing comprehensive privacy programs and enabling continuous compliance, information governance, and data security.

User security and privacy is Xiaomi’s top priority. In 2014, Xiaomi established its Security and Privacy Committee. In 2016, Xiaomi became the first Chinese enterprise to receive certification from TrustArc. Xiaomi adopted the GDPR of the EU compliance assessment in 2018, and continues to submit to outside scrutiny when it comes to data protection and user privacy. In 2019, Xiaomi security and privacy practices were certificated on ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018. The company also published the first version of the MIUI security and privacy white paper.

For more information, please visit https://trust.mi.com/compliance

About Xiaomi Corporation

Xiaomi Corporation was founded in April 2010 and listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018 (1810.HK). Xiaomi is a consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core.

Embracing our vision of "Make friends with users and be the coolest company in the users’ hearts", Xiaomi continuously pursues innovations, high-quality user experience and operational efficiency. The company relentlessly builds amazing products with honest prices to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology.

Xiaomi is one of the world’s leading smartphone companies. The company’s market share in terms of smartphone shipments ranked no. 3 globally in the third quarter of 2021. The company has also established the world’s leading consumer AIoT (AI+IoT) platform, more than 400 million smart devices connected to its platform as of September 30, 2021, excluding smartphones and laptops. Xiaomi products are present in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. In August 2021, the company made the Fortune Global 500 list for the third time, ranking 338th, up 84 places compared to 2020.

Xiaomi is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, Hang Seng TECH Index and Hang Seng China 50 Index.

For more information about Xiaomi as a company, please visit https://www.mi.com/global/discover/newsroom

PR Newswire

Retailo Raises $36M million in Landmark Series A Round For Empowering Community Commerce in MENA Region

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MENA’s fastest growing B2B start-up focusing on regional expansion and many new initiatives to carry momentum forward

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 2, 2022 — Retailo, the fastest growing startup in Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP) which is digitizing the region’s retail supply chains, has raised $36 million in its Series A investment round which was a mix of equity and venture debt. Retailo is a regional B2B marketplace in MENAP and has raised a total investment of $45 million in less than 1.5 years of operations, a landmark for any startup in the region.

 

Retailo’s Co-founders (from L-R) Muhammad Nowkhaiz, Talha Ansari and Wahaj Ahmed.
Retailo’s Co-founders (from L-R) Muhammad Nowkhaiz, Talha Ansari and Wahaj Ahmed.

 

Retailo’s Series A round has attracted leading investors with proven track records of impactful investments. The round was led by Silicon Valley based Graphene Ventures which was an investor of tech giants Snapchat and Lyft.

For Retailo’s Series A, Graphene is joined by leading investors that include 500 Global, Agility, Aujan, Tech Invest Com and Mentor’s Fund, all of which have the relevant exposure and investments in the retail industry’s technology companies. The venture debt was raised from Nahda Fund – one of the Middle East’s first venture debt funds which is backed by IMM Investment Global, based in Hong Kong. Additionally, Shorooq Partners, Abercross Holdings, Arzan VC, AgFunder also participated in the round as repeat investors which demonstrates their continuing belief in Retailo’s successful future.

Retail in MENAP is a $500 billion industry which consists of over 10 million small businesses to serve a population of more than 700 million consumers. However, the majority of this retail industry is informal and undigitized. Small businesses have to rely on inefficient supply chains and limited financial resources while operating on impossible margins. Retailo aims to champion these small business owners by building a suite of technologies around them. The company has begun this via their B2B community commerce platform which is used by over 50,000 retailers monthly.

On Retailo’s mobile platform, small businesses can find a wide catalogue of over 5,000 SKUs which are delivered to their doorstep in less than 24 hours. They can also avail Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, which give them flexible payment options and credit lines. By providing timely supply, competitive rates, and easy credit, Retailo is able to address the needs of retailers and significantly improve their business.

To offer a one-stop shop solution, Retailo (https://retailo.co) directly works with hundreds of leading local, regional and global brands. Retailo also optimizes end-to-end logistics in the supply chain via efficient warehousing operations and smart fleet management solutions. Leveraging its wide regional presence, Retailo has recently begun offering its sellers a cross-border distribution platform across the three biggest markets in the region: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. Retailo also provides data analytics services to sellers to help them evaluate sales performance and consumption trends.

Headquartered in Riyadh, Retailo was founded by former Careem executives Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed and Mohammad Nowkhaiz in July 2020 with a unique regional launch. Growth has been quick and in only 18 months Retailo has scaled to 10+ cities in 3 countries: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. "The multi-market strategy from day one was unconventional and challenging. Covid made it even more so. But now Retailo is a scalable organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized revenue and colleagues from multiple nationalities and diverse backgrounds who have left leading institutions like Amazon, Delivery Hero and Goldman Sachs to fulfil Retailo mission in building technology that empowers 10 million retailers in the region," said Himag Vaidya, Retailo’s Head of Strategy.

Nabil A. Borhanu, partner at Graphene Ventures said, "We are impressed with what Retailo has achieved in an astonishingly short time. Their vision is both ambitious and inspiring and we believe that partnering with them is a sound business investment and also a chance to truly improve the lives of millions of people."    

The Series A funding will help Retailo move into the next phase of expansion into new geographies, verticals and products. "As global supply chains come under stress pushing up commodity prices and depressing GDP growth, the value of smart supply chains becomes even more important," said Retailo’s CEO Talha Ansari. "The retail sector serves 700 million persons in MENAP, contributes almost 20% to the GDP and employs tens of millions. By providing technology solutions to this underserved market, we are not only improving lives but also uplifting the economy of the entire MENAP region."

For further information, please contact:
Sibtain Naqvi
Director Strategic Communications
Retailo Technologies
Email: sibtain.naqvi@retailo.co
+923062497523

PR Newswire

Too early to bottom-fish in China’s property bonds, Greifenberg Digital says

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NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2022  — Greifenberg Digital, a member of the IMTE Group, commented today on the risks to Chinese property bonds as gauged by its suite of quantitative models. 

"Large parts of China’s property bond market are still too risky for investors," Jerry Lucas of Greifenberg Digital said after the bulk of US dollar bonds of Chinese property companies closed at new lows. The Bloomberg Index of high-yield Chinese bonds denominated in US currency (Bloomberg ID I36616 Index) closed January 18 at 53.7, down from a March 2021 peak of 120. "Although bonds of some property companies with stronger balance sheet have risen in price today [January 19], more leveraged developers remain subject to very high default risk, according to our models."

US dollar bonds of Country Gardens, one of the stronger developers, rose in Hong Kong January 19 on hopes of easier regulatory and monetary policy, according to financial news reports.

"For most developers, the equity buffer for creditors remains extremely thin, and default risk remains elevated. More clarity is required both from issuers and regulators before the riskier part of the property market becomes attractive," Lucas added.

Greifenberg Digital recently released Credit AI™, a suite of risk analytics that applies Artificial Intelligence/Big Data technology to a universe of 30,000 Chinese corporate bonds. Credit AI models forecasted the crisis in China’s property bond market last year, according to a Greifenberg White Paper released on December 7.

"The equity buffer on the balance sheets of the stronger property companies is shrinking as they sell assets and raise equity at a discount," said Lucas, a managing director at Greifenberg. "The shrinking equity buffer in turn leaves the property sector closer to default."

China’s high yield market lost ground in the second half of 2021, and continued to show losses during the first two weeks of January 2022.


Sunac China Holdings Limited (1918.HK) January 12 issued equity in Hong Kong at a 15% discount to the previous day’s close, and its stock led the property market down.

Credit AI uses four models, including a contingent claims analysis module that prices the issuer’s option to default. Less equity on the balance sheet and higher equity volatility increase the probability of default in this model, based on the work of Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton.

The Greifenberg models also analyze sentiment via Natural Language Processing of news and social media and apply machine learning to balance sheet analysis.

"The Merton approach gives us a real-time indicator of credit risk," Lucas added. "What we observe from the equity price and volatility of the more vulnerable property companies tells us that default risk remains elevated."

"In the case of Fantasia Holdings Group Co., Limited (1777.HK), distance to default as calculated by the contingent claims analysis model had fallen for six months before Fantasia’s bond price fell in July 2021. That’s been true for most of the distressed property companies. One or more of the Credit AI models sent out a warning signal well in advance of the event," Lucas added.


"If we look at where Fantasia’s default risk is trading today, we see that there has been no real improvement, and its bond price continues to bounce along the bottom."

"We see a nearly identical pattern in the case of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd (1638.HK). For example, Kaisa’s distance to default had been shrinking since the middle of June 2021, but the bond price didn’t react until October.


"Now we see that distance to default remains extremely low, and Kaisa’s bond price is following it down."

"The market is telling us that the underlying assets of the highly levered property companies are still subject to price discovery. There are a lot of unknowns, including the extent to which state-owned banks will lend to distressed property companies, and the terms on which state-owned enterprises will buy assets from weak hands. The Chinese government is likely to favor homebuyers who have already made down payments for apartments and suppliers over bondholders. Net, we think investors should wait for clarity before bargain hunting."

About Greifenberg Digital Limited ("Greifenberg")

Greifenberg is a Canadian company engaged in the business of the credit research on China’s fixed income market.  Greifenberg has developed an innovative AI/Big Data suite of corporate bond analytics focused on the Chinese market. For more information, please visit www.greifenbergcapital.com.

About Integrated Media Technology Limited ("IMTE") 

IMTE is an Australian company engaged in the business of the manufacture and sale of nano coated plates for filters, the manufacturing and sale of electronic glass, operating a platform on trading in digital assets and financial research.  For more information, please visit www.imtechltd.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain statements that may include "forward-looking statements." All statements other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements."  These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties.  Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (http://www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

PR Newswire

Luokung Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Notification Regarding Minimum Bid Price Deficiency

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BEIJING, Jan. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Luokung Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: LKCO) ("Luokung" or the "Company"), a leading spatial-temporal intelligent big data services company and provider of interactive location-based services ("LBS") and high-definition maps ("HD Maps") in China, today announced that it has received a notification letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC ("Nasdaq") notifying the Company that it is not in compliance with the minimum bid price requirement set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rules 5550(a)(2) and 5810(c)(3)(A), which require that the closing bid price for the Company’s ordinary shares listed on Nasdaq be maintained at a minimum of US$1.00 and failure to maintain it for 30 consecutive trading days constitutes a compliance deficiency.

The notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the Company’s ordinary shares on Nasdaq.

In accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), the Company has 180 calendar days from the date of notification, or until July 5, 2022, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement, during which time the Company’s ordinary shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market. If at any time before July 5, 2022, the bid price of the Company’s ordinary shares closes at or above US$1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, Nasdaq will provide written notification that the Company has achieved compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. In the event the Company does not regain compliance by July 5, 2022, the Company may be eligible for additional time to regain compliance or may be delisted from Nasdaq.

The Company intends to monitor the closing bid price of its ordinary shares and may consider options that may be available to achieve compliance, including, but not limited to, implementing a reverse share split of its outstanding ordinary shares at the end of the first or second compliance period, as the situation applies.

About Luokung Technology Corp.

Luokung Technology Corp. is a leading spatial-temporal intelligent big data services company, as well as a leading provider of LBS and HD Maps for various industries in China. Backed by its proprietary technologies and expertise in HD Maps and multi-sourced intelligent spatial-temporal big data, Luokung established city-level and industry-level holographic spatial-temporal digital twin systems and actively serves industries including smart transportation (autonomous driving, smart highway and vehicle-road collaboration), natural resource asset management (carbon neutral and environmental protection remote sensing data service), and LBS smart industry applications (mobile Internet LBS, smart travel, smart logistics, new infrastructure, smart cities, emergency rescue ,among others). The Company routinely provides important updates on its website: https://www.luokung.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and other statements that are other than statements of historical fact. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "could", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "might", "plan", "probable", "potential", "should", "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, management’s examination and analysis of the existing law, rules and regulations and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you the statement herein will be accurate. As a result, you are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

The Company:
Mr. Jay Yu
Chief Financial Officer
Tel: +86-10-6506-5217
Email: ir@luokung.com

Investor Relations:
Ms. Carolyne Sohn
Vice President
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: 415-568-2255
Email: csohn@equityny.com

PR Newswire

The first 6G AI Competition has been launched by OPPO

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BEIJING, Jan. 8, 2022 — OPPO, the world’s leading smart device manufacturers and innovators, officially launched the first 6G AI Competition on December 24, 2021 (Beijing time) on DataFountain (a leading Big Data & AI competition platform).

The deep integration of wireless communication and artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important direction for the construction of future wireless communication systems. At present, many researches with good results on AI solutions for specific modularization problems of 5G wireless communication systems have been carried out in academia and industry. At the same time, with the evolution from 5G to 6G, researchers have once again obtained the opportunity to ponder, define and build a new generation of wireless communication systems. In this process, many constraints in current system can be relaxed, and the direction and depth of the integration for 6G and AI can further be expanded.

Based on the above background, OPPO launched the "6G AI Competition", which aims to combine the strengths of all parties and the promotion of the competition to systematically and comprehensively study the impact of AI on the future wireless communication system and the solutions for key issues. In the first stage of the competition design, from the perspective of methodological innovation, they introduce some common problems that AI-based solutions need to face, and will comprehensively promote the technological breakthrough and industrial landing of smart 6G.

The competition is open to all the people around the world, regardless of age or nationality. All colleges and universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises, maker teams, individuals, etc. can log on to the official website to register for the competition.

Competition Task:
Task Name: AI based Channel Modeling and Generating
The task considers utilizing AI based method to realize the big set of wireless channel data generation which is seeded from a small set of real channel data. The similarity and diversity of the generated data are jointly used to perform the evaluation.

Competition Time
24th December, 2021 – 11th March, 2022

Bonus
Golden Prize: 300,000 RMB for 1 team
Silver Prize: 50,000 RMB (per team) for 2 teams
Bronze Prize: 20,000 RMB (per team) for 3 teams
Winning Prize: 10,000 RMB (per team) for 4 teams

Official Competition website:
https://www.datafountain.cn/competitions/557?lang=en-US&utm source=US 
Click here to learn more and sign up.

PR Newswire

CIEF 2021 kicks off, 6,000 plus projects exhibited online and offline (“Empower the Dual Circulation & Boost the New Development,” 2021 CIEF opens)

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GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 11, 2021 — On December 10, the 2021 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair (hereinafter referred to as CIEF) with the theme of "Empower the Dual Circulation & Boost the New Development" kicked off at Pazhou Canton Fair Complex. This three-day CIEF will be held from December 10 to December 12.

2021 CIEF is hosted by China Association for Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Central Committee of the Jiu San Society, the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, and the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality, and organized by the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and Asia Data Group. This CIEF features 15 exhibition areas and functional areas. More than 6,000 scientific and technological achievements that are urgently needed by businesses and can be easily commercialized will be displayed offline and online, with a focus on advanced technology and products in high-tech fields such as new infrastructure, intelligent vehicles, next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine and high-end equipment. 20 events such as the forum summit, auction of achievements, technology transfers, and project roadshows will be held simultaneously.

The online exhibition will be included at the 2021 CIEF, which is an event that "never ends", in order to promote the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements in a routine and targeted manner, and build a full-chain innovation ecosystem. Through the online platform, domestic and international exhibitors can conduct online exhibition, matchmaking of scientific and technological achievements, and roadshows. Based on 66 CIEF achievement commercialization bases and online exhibition platform, the 2021 CIEF will carry out 100 online and offline matchmaking activities before and after the fair to promote the integration of the innovation chain and the industrial chain.

Focus on key industries during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and help the state and regions make new progress

The CIEF is an innovative, open, and hub-type national exhibition that is guided by the national widespread innovation and entrepreneurship strategy and that exhibits the achievements of innovation and entrepreneurship. The 2021 CIEF will help the state and regions make new progress and get off to a good starting during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China will promote the integration of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, prioritize the supporting and leading role of infrastructure, and build a modern industrial system for the coordinated development of the real economy, technological innovation, modern finance, and human resources. the 2021 CIEF follows the national development plan, with a focus on the key industries under the 14th Five-Year Plan. This CIEF features special exhibition areas to showcase China’s achievements in new infrastructure, advanced equipment and cutting-edge technology, new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and intelligent vehicles.

At the 2021 CIEF, 33 scientific research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences will showcase a total of 149 high-end scientific and technological achievements. Scientists from the Jiu San Society across the country will display xxx pieces of latest achievements in the fields of new energy, new materials, and so on. 37 academicians and their teams will display 92 projects.

The outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan" states that support will be given to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to build an international center for scientific and technological innovation. The 2021 CIEF features special exhibition areas to display the scientific and technological achievements made by innovation entities in "9+2" cities in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao region, including universities, enterprises, scientific research institutes, and new-type research and development institutions. It aims to boost the exchange and promotion of technological innovation and advanced scientific research achievements in the Greater Bay Area, and facilitate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements and the growth of innovative enterprises.

At the CIEF, a series of activities related to key industries during the 14th Five-Year Plan period will be held, such as the High-end Equipment Manufacturing Innovation Forum and the Greater Bay Area Roundtable Summit for Achievement Commercialization Ecosystem Construction, in an effort to promote the upgrading of the manufacturing industry and build new pillars of the industrial system.

Serve the construction of innovation hub city for "Innovation China", and create a model for technological and economic integration

Guangzhou was selected as an innovation hub city for "Innovation China" on May 30 this year, the only city selected in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

"Innovation China" is a service brand created by China Association for Science and Technology to promote the integration of technology and economy. After having held the CIEF for six consecutive years, Guangzhou now has the advantages of the entire chain covering government, industry, universities, research institutes, and financing, and stands out from the many pilot cities for "Innovation China", becoming an innovation hub city for "Innovation China".

The 2021 CIEF will continue to serve Guangzhou as it becomes an innovation hub city for "Innovation China". At the event, the "Innovation Guangzhou" innovation achievements exhibition area will showcase scientific and technological achievements made by innovation entities in Guangzhou, such as Guangdong laboratories, national key laboratories, key high-tech enterprises, as well as national, provincial and municipal technological innovation and R&D platforms. It will better show Guangzhou’s achievements in becoming "Innovation China" innovation hub city and in scientific and technological innovations in recent years.

At the 2021 CIEF, Guangzhou policies on the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements will be released in the form of promotional videos to help technological innovation enterprises and talents to learn about Guangzhou policies. At the CIEF, relevant persons responsible from the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee’s Talent Leadership Office, Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, Guangzhou Science and Technology Finance Group Co., Ltd., and Nansha District Science and Technology Bureau will be invited to give presentations on policies regarding innovation and entrepreneurship, introduction of talents, project commercialization, transactions of intellectual property rights, etc. for participating organizations and personnel, as well as offering face-to-face consulting services.

At the CIEF, the awarding ceremony of the National Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Talents will be held for Guangzhou Development Zone and Nansha District. The establishment of the National Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Talents in two districts of the same city is a sign that China Association for Science and Technology recognizes Guangzhou’s work on talents and innovation and entrepreneurship. The Base will support Guangzhou Development Zone and Nansha District in attracting overseas talents and technology, as well as in the incubation of innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.

Integrate resources and extend the service chain, address "last mile" issue in transactions of achievements

Following six years of development, the CIEF has a better "1+1+N" model for achievement commercialization (namely annual exhibition, one online CIEF platform and "N" regular achievement commercialization bases). The CIEF has set up 66 routine achievement commercialization bases in achievement commercialization institutions, incubators, and science and technology parks, and has established an achievement commercialization and transaction service network that covers the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and extends to the whole nation.

The CIEF will lead more than 50 banks, foundations, venture capital organizations, industry associations, incubators and other related organizations in the field of achievement commercialization and investment and financing to establish China CIEF Achievement Cand Investment and Financing Alliance. Through the CIEF and achievement commercialization bases, the alliance will hold roadshows for the matchmaking of projects and investors, build a communication bridge between investment and financing parties and innovation and entrepreneurship achievement projects, improve the service of the investment and financing industry and matchmaking efficiency, and address the "last mile" issue in the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.

Centering on the central task of achievement trading, the 2021 CIEF will organize CIEF achievement and technology auctions, CIEF roadshows for outstanding projects, bank-enterprise matchmaking for inclusive finance, academician tour of enterprises, and other events to facilitate commercialization and transactions.

Empower the new development pattern of dual circulation, and integrate into global technological innovation

The theme of the 2021 CIEF is "enabling double circulation and boosting new development". The CIEF has been committed to accelerating the integration of government, industry, universities, research institutes, and financing, opening up the chain of technological innovation, facilitating localized knowledge production, flow, diffusion, application, and re-generation, and helping to build a domestic circulation for technological innovation.

The 2021 CIEF steps up efforts to attract innovation projects from countries with a developed technology industry, introducing global advanced innovation elements to China for double circulation. The CIEF also features the Belt and Road international exhibition area and Israel Day activities. About 300 projects will be displayed at an exhibition area of more than 1,100 square meters. At the same time, a total of 137 companies from more than 20 innovative countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the United States, Russia, Israel, South Korea as well as the countries along the Belt and Road will participate in the events, with a focus on intelligent technology, consumer electronics, green and low-carbon, biomedicine and other industries.

The CIEF will also hold the Belt and Road Technology Transaction and Innovation Development Forum, International Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Cooperation Forum, International Online New Economy Industry Forum and other forums. Academicians, leaders of innovative technology businesses, and representatives of national scientific research institutions will participate in online and offline events, and contribute to the new development pattern with double circulation through technological innovation.