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PR Newswire

Rokt closes US$80M Series D investment round as COVID-19 drives significant demand in e-commerce

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The tech leader sees a 42% increase in valuation in 2020, to more than US$450M

NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2020 — Rokt, the global leader in e-commerce technology, today announced an investment of US$80M. The capital will help accelerate research & development and support the expansion of its client base into new verticals and geographies as Rokt continues to make e-commerce smarter, faster, and better.

The funding round was led by Rokt’s largest institutional shareholder TDM Growth Partners, and supported by other existing investors including Square Peg. In just this year alone, Rokt’s valuation has increased 42% to more than US$450M.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the foundations of corporations and startups alike, it has also created a strong market demand for e-commerce and in turn, for Rokt. Limited in-person shopping and rapidly changing consumer spending habits have led companies in all categories to accelerate their digital transformation, and e-commerce has deepened its foothold in daily lives.

"With the industry facing COVID-related challenges, brands need alternative revenue sources and acquisition channels," said CEO, Bruce Buchanan. "Rokt continues to be laser-focused on bringing value to the hundreds of e-commerce companies that rely on our technology to deliver top- and bottom line results, and will continue to drive innovation and deliver results that the market desperately needs," Bruce continued, "We are delighted for the investment and strategic guidance from our shareholders and look forward to continuing to deliver on our mission." 

"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting uncertainty, we still have high conviction in market leading technology companies. Rokt is certainly one of these businesses. We are thrilled to increase our investment in Rokt and continue our partnership with Bruce and the business," said TDM partner, Tom Cowan.

The additional funding sets up a strong foundation for continued rapid growth of Rokt. Rokt closed their US$48M Series C investment round less than a year ago. Recently, they have invested in strengthening their leadership team, hiring an SVP of Marketing, a new Chief Technology Officer, and 3 additional executive appointments in the last 4 months. Their world-class technology was also recognized by the MarTech Breakthrough awards as the Best Use of AI in MarTech.

For more information about the companies, visit Rokt, TDM Growth Partners, and Square Peg.

ABOUT ROKT

Rokt is the global leader in e-commerce technology, powering the Transaction Moment™ of best-in-class companies including Expedia, Live Nation, Groupon, Staples, Lands’ End, Fanatics, GoDaddy, Vistaprint, and HelloFresh. Rokt’s mission: To make e-commerce smarter, faster, and better.

Through its proprietary technology, Rokt enables its e-commerce clients to increase brand engagement and unlock new revenues in the Transaction Moment™, allowing them to stay ahead of their competition while delivering a superior and individualized experience for each customer.

Founded in Sydney, the company now operates in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Japan. Learn more at rokt.com. 

ABOUT TDM. GROWTH PARTNERS

TDM Growth Partners is a global investment firm with offices currently in Sydney and New York.

TDM invests in fast growing companies run by passionate management teams. Our unique and flexible mandate allows us to invest in public and private companies globally.

TDM operates on long-term time horizons, and a commitment to help build businesses we’re proud of. We have a highly focused approach to investing, with a portfolio of no more than 15 investments globally. TDM has the ability to deploy capital up to $150 million per investment. https://www.tdmgrowthpartners.com/

ABOUT SQUARE PEG

Square Peg is a venture capital firm on a mission to empower exceptional founders. It invests in technology companies across Australia, Israel and Southeast Asia with a focus on Series A and B. Square Peg is investing out of its US$235 million 2018 fund and manages US$1 billion in capital commitments.
www.spc.vc

Rokt team virtually celebrates closing their Series D investment round amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Rokt team virtually celebrates closing their Series D investment round amid the COVID-19 pandemic

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http://www.rokt.com

PR Newswire

Retail Tech Startup Tiliter Raises $7.5M for Cashierless AI Shopping Technology

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Tiliter to increase global footprint as Investec invests through its IEC Australia Fund I

SYDNEY, Oct. 20, 2020 — Investor demand for innovative emerging companies remains strong with Australian AI tech startup Tiliter completing a $7.5 million capital raise, led by Investec Emerging Companies (IEC).

Eleanor Venture, a tech investment syndicate for angel investors, and New York’s Cornell University also participated in the funding round.

Tiliter is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) provider whose technology uses computer vision to recognise products without barcodes.

Its technology automatically identifies items, such as fresh produce, without the need for barcodes, packaging, and price stickers, making it easier for shoppers to manage during self-checkout.

Tiliter is currently focused on the Supermarket vertical and its camera and software system uses AI to pre-select items and remove the need for manual entry, with over 99% accuracy and in under one second.

Karen Chan, Head of Investec’s Emerging Companies division, said Tiliter aligned with the Fund’s philosophy of investing in companies with high growth potential backed by strong founders.

"We are excited to be working with the Tiliter team and believe this technology solves a very real need for both consumers and retailers in the Australian market and abroad," Chan said.

With retailers increasingly moving towards self-checkout and mobile-checkout options, Tiliter’s technology makes it easier and faster for customers to complete their transactions, reduces fraud, costs, and waste for businesses, and addresses the need for contactless purchases in a COVID-19 world. This can all be done with limited integration and no changes to the retailer’s IT infrastructure.

Tiliter was founded in 2017 by Marcel Herz, Martin Karafilis, and Chris Sampson. Commenting on the Tiliter team, Chan said, "The Tiliter co-founders are a visionary team, leveraging technology to solve the problems of the future.

"At IEC, we believe in acting as a true partner to our investee companies to provide advice, capital, and connectivity. We look forward to supporting the Tiliter team to reach their global growth aspirations."

Tiliter’s early adopters include Woolworths in Australia with over 20 live stores, Countdown in New Zealand, and several retail chains in the U.S., such as New York City’s Westside Market.

The company will use the latest funding to accelerate its expansion across Europe and the U.S., with many supermarkets to unveil Tiliter’s product recognition technology over the coming months.

CEO and co-founder of Tiliter Marcel Herz welcomed the funding from Investec and noted there had been a 300% increase in scan-and-go adoption in the U.S. over the past year due to COVID, and this growth is expected to rise globally.

"As an industry, we’re just at the beginning of how AI combined with computer vision will shape the future for brick-and-mortar and online shopping. It was important that we partner with investors that understand the new dynamics in retail innovation and the massive opportunity arising from this change," says Herz.

One factor many retail technology companies face is the cost and operational overhead to install and maintain their solutions.

"There has been an increased focus for Tiliter to create a plug-and-play solution for retailers and remove the operational friction of adopting cashier-less technology, particularly during the COVID pandemic," says Martin Karafilis, COO and co-founder of Tiliter.

"The end-to-end capability of Tiliter’s dedicated hardware and software is an example of how Tiliter’s recognition technology can be easily installed and used anywhere in the world at a lower cost than currently offered autonomous store solutions."

About Tiliter:

Tiliter makes software and hardware that uses computer vision to recognise products without barcodes. Tiliter is using machine learning and data analytic algorithms to disrupt industry practices and create the future now. For more information or to schedule a demo, visit www.tiliter.com or contact sales@tiliter.com. 

Media Contact: felicity.mullens@tiliter.com

About Investec Emerging Companies:

Investec Emerging Companies (IEC) is a division of Investec Australia. IEC partners with emerging companies to provide them with an integrated capital and advisory offering. The team partners with companies led by strong founders, with high growth potential and a demonstrated track record.

Media Contact: guy@honner.com.au

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Tiliter’s Co-Founders
Chris Sampson, Martin Karafilis and Marcel Herz (left to right)

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PR Newswire

Cyberport’s flagship VC event returns to guide investors and entrepreneurs in the new normal of tech venturing

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100+ venture capital experts and start-ups at Cyberport Venture Capital Forum 2020 on 3-4 Nov to explore post COVID-19 silver linings

HONG KONG, Oct. 16, 2020 — Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF), Cyberport’s annual tech investment event, will return on 3-4 November. This year’s event will be held in a virtual and interactive format for the first time, covering how the tech venture ecosystem has been reshaped under the new normal for investors, enterprises and technopreneurs. The two-day virtual forum will gather more than 50 global venture capital (VC) experts to examine key silver linings through a plethora of illuminating keynotes and panel discussions. Furthermore, over 80 virtual booths will be set up for start-ups to showcase innovative tech solutions as part of a comprehensive platform to connect start-ups with investors for power pitching and provide extensive opportunities to explore tech venturing dynamics.

As the digital tech flagship in Hong Kong, Cyberport is dedicated to facilitating deal flow for start-ups and enriching the regional VC landscape. Echoing the event’s overarching theme, "Navigating New Normal of Tech Venturing", over 50 international and local experts from major industry players, including Qiming Venture Partners, Alibaba Group, IESE Business School, PayU-Prosus, Vickers Venture Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, Sino Group, Rethink Education, Blue Elephant Capital, HashKey Digital Asset Group, Angelhub, Radiant Venture Capital, Asia GreenTech Fund, Lingfeng Capital and LEGO Ventures, will discuss the latest global paradigm shift in the tech venturing landscape that has stemmed from the current macro-economic outlook and mega trends, covering topics such as the latest strategies from VC and corporate ventures, new investment spaces like venture debt, the development of education technology (EdTech), the geo-political impact of cross-border capital flow and investor orientations with regards to the trade tensions and Asia market dynamics, digital transformation in high potential verticals, funding strategies for start-ups, and more.

Cindy Chow, Chairlady of the Cyberport Investors Network and Executive Director of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, will also be highlighting start-up fundraising updates and plans for investor engagement while celebrating the third anniversary of the dedicated investment platform.

Global events extending frontier of tech venturing

This year, two spotlight events under CVCF will further enrich insights in the wider tech venturing space. To enhance support for start-ups and connections with the EdTech sector, CVCF is pleased to co-present the Edventures Global Business Acceleration Summit together with Esperanza, a start-up NGO founded by Mr John C Tsang to catalyse the development of Hong Kong as an EdTech innovation hub in the GBA. The event looks into the developments and trends of the EdTech market, which is one of the most promising markets under the new normal and a key sector of development within Cyberport’s smart living application cluster.

CVCF will also partner with international tech investment event, Silicon Dragon 2020, to bring in more international investors and start-ups, and explore more tech venturing dynamics, all whilst connecting capital, innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth.

Peter Yan, CEO of Cyberport, said, "the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic to the economy have at the same time accelerated the digital transformation of enterprises and the wide adoption of various digital business models like online-to-offline, virtual events, work and learn from home. There is also an increasing demand in tech-assisted healthcare and other contactless lifestyle applications. All these translate to an unprecedented conducive business environment for our tech start-ups to grow and more than ever, a strong need for investors to leverage the Cyberport platform to identify quality companies with strong talents and promising business models. Cyberport remains committed to spring-boarding start-ups to success, and the Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF) is the key event for us to bridge investors with our tech community as well as the annual destination for our Cyberport Investor Network (CIN) to gather, share their views on the latest developments and exchange insights on coming trends. I look forward to another year of illuminating sharings by industry leaders and productive exchanges and matchings between the tech community and investors."

First month-long CVCF virtual experience live from 21 October

Starting from 21 October, CVCF will kick off its very first month-long virtual experience with conference and workshop content available 24/7 on its dedicated event platform. The Innovator showcase will feature virtual booths of tech solutions and allow investors and audience members to interact with the most enterprising innovators to explore collaborations. At the Founder Stage, short pitch videos will be streamed for promising start-ups across different fields to present their projects to investors and to gain exposure. These will also be available to view on demand on the event platform. Investor matching sessions will allow one-on-one investor meetings with start-ups based on tech sectors and investment appetite between late October to early November.

Extended international engagement to enrich pool and facilitate investment matching

To reach a wider global audience of investors and start-ups, this year is the first time CVCF is partnering with the Consulates General of Canada and Israel respectively, Macau Young Entrepreneur Innovation Centre, and leading co-working spaces in Hong Kong to bring in start-ups and investors.

The Edventures Global Business Acceleration Summit on the second event day will gather innovators, investors, educators and talent development professionals who are looking for solutions and opportunities in the education technology space. Renowned speakers of the event include Richard Culatta, CEO, International Society for Technology in Education, Kamran Elahian, Chairman and Founder of Global Innovation Catalyst and Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner of Rethink Education.

During the Summit, 10 finalists of the Edventures GBA Fellowship, a global competition to help growth stage EdTech start-ups expand internationally, will compete for the chance to connect with business matching and market expansion consultancies. The finalists from Hong Kong, Finland, Mainland China, the UK and the US, will be showcasing their ventures, ranging from early childhood education to lifelong learning solutions. Among them are two Cyberport community start-ups, Mandarin Matrix, which operates online Mandarin learning classrooms for K12, and Xccelerate, which provides enterprise training in skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These finalists together with EdTech start-ups at Cyberport will also exhibit at the concurrent Virtual Global Edventures Expo from 23 Oct – 22 Nov.

CVCF is a highly anticipated flagship tech venture event for investors and entrepreneurs in the digital technology domain. This year, to further enrich industry and market insights of the forum, a series of pre-event webinars have been held since July in anticipation of the main event to allow industry leaders to share their insights and fresh perspectives on smart investments and digital transformation, and to help enterprises pivot in the new normal. Featured programmes have been uploaded to the event’s platform.

For more details about the webinar, the CVCF 2020 programme schedule and full speaker line-up, please visit: http://cvcf.cyberport.hk/

About Cyberport

Cyberport is an innovative digital community with close to 1,600 start-ups and technology companies. It is managed by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government. With a vision to be the hub for digital technology thereby creating a new economic driver for Hong Kong, Cyberport is committed to nurturing a vibrant tech ecosystem by cultivating talent, promoting entrepreneurship among youth, supporting start-ups on their growth journey, fostering industry development by promoting strategic collaboration with local and international partners, and integrating new and traditional economies by accelerating digital transformation in the public and private sectors.

For more information, please visit www.cyberport.hk

For high resolution photos, please download via this link. 

Cyberport Venture Capital Forum 2020

Date

3-4 November 2020

Time

9 am – 6 pm

Website

https://cvcf.cyberport.hk/
Virtual activities platform has gone live from on 21 October

Event Focus
  • Webinar series "Venture in Focus"
  • Keynotes and panel discussions
  • Innovator Showcase (starts from 21 October)
  • Investor Matching (starts from end of October)
  • Founder Stage (starts from 21 October)
  • Start-up Workshop
  • Start-up Clinic

Spotlight Events
  • Celebration ceremony for the third anniversary of the Cyberport Investors Network (4 November, am)
  • Cyberport Entrepreneurship Programme Graduation Ceremony 2020 (4 November, pm)
  • Silicon Dragon 2020 (4 November, am)
  • Edventures Global Business Acceleration Summit (full day on 4 November)

Key issues
  • Global tech venture trends
  • Recalibrating China-US venture orientations
  • Post-pandemic predictions of venture & tech outlook
  • EdTech as the new venture hotspot
  • Venture debt: The new funding avenue

 

Related Links :

http://www.cyberport.hk

PR Newswire

MessageBird raises $200M Series C, at $3B valuation, as global demand for leading Omnichannel Platform-as-a-Service (OPaaS) surges during lockdown

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  • MessageBird solves customer communication complexity with the world’s first and only Omnichannel Platform as a Service (OPaaS), comprising suite of tools including Inbox, Omnichannel Chat Widget and Flow Builder
  • Latest investment, led by Spark Capital General Partner Will Reed, who will join the board, was raised remotely and makes MessageBird Europe’s newest unicorn with $3B valuation
  • Omnichannel platform approach enables businesses anywhere in the world to communicate and share rich media with any customer instantly across WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, Messenger, WeChat, Google Business Messaging, Line and Telegram, while also collecting all customer interactions across channels into one single thread of truth
  • Latest fundraise comes as company launches fully remote ‘Work from Anywhere’ policy

AMSTERDAM, SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Oct. 8, 2020 — MessageBird, the world’s leading omnichannel cloud communications platform, has today announced the closing of a new $200M Series C round led by Silicon Valley’s Spark Capital at a $3B valuation with participation from Bonnier, Glynn Capital, LGT Lightstone, Longbow, Mousse Partners and New View Capital. As part of this latest investment Spark Capital General Partner Will Reed will join MessageBird’s board. Existing investors Accel, Atomico, and Y-Combinator also participated in this round.

This latest investment, raised remotely during lockdown, comes on the back of a global surge in demand for a wider range of messaging-first customer communication tools, across a much broader range of channels, as global businesses struggle to cope with the pivot from physical in-store and call centre-based customer service to a fully remote workforce and online only sales. This accelerated MessageBird’s evolution from a purely Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) company to the world’s first and only Omnichannel Platform as a Service (OPaaS) company. The funding will be used to triple the size of MessageBird’s global team and further expand into its core markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America, as the company officially launches a "Work from Anywhere" policy.

"I just want to live in a world where I can text with a business and never get stuck waiting on hold again. MessageBird has pioneered OPaaS (Omnichannel Platform as a Service) based on the idea that global companies should have zero-friction communication with their customers anywhere in the world and on any channel they prefer," said Robert Vis, MessageBird Founder & CEO. "This latest round is validation that there is pent up demand from customers all over the world who also want traditional businesses to move into this brave new messaging-first omnichannel world and we have the leading product on the market to help them do just that."

"As consumers increasingly demand that businesses talk to them in the apps that they prefer, businesses are finally being forced to adopt omnichannel strategies at scale," said Will Reed, General Partner at Spark Capital. "Robert and the MessageBird team have built the best platform to engage any customer on any channel, globally – along with a suite of software products that enhance and automate these interactions – enabling businesses to stand out in the new messaging-first world."

A true omnichannel experience is about shifting customer engagement away from the inefficient channels of email and voice to more dynamic messaging channels. That requires products for both businesses and consumers to complete the circle of having unified context around every interaction. This is now possible thanks to MessageBird’s suite of products including:

  • Inbox – Free omnichannel customer support and engagement, Inbox enables businesses anywhere in the world to communicate and share rich media with any customer instantly across WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, Messenger, WeChat, Google Business Messaging, Line and Telegram. Incoming messages across every channel grouped into a single customer thread for easy ticketing and response
  • Omnichannel Chat Widget – turns static pages into dynamic conversations, enabling customers to communicate with your teams on your homepage, in your app, on live chat or any messaging service (WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, SMS, and more)
  • Flow Builder – An RPA platform for business messaging, Flow Builder enables any business to also build bespoke omnichannel experiences
  • Finally, MessageBird is the only platform with preferred supplier relationships with all the major messaging platforms, enabling customers anywhere in the world to communicate and share rich media with any business instantly

One third of Messagebird’s 15,000 global customers have now transitioned to using omnichannel cloud communications via their Flowbuilder, Inbox or Omnichannel Widget products. MessageBird is trusted by established brands such as DBS, Alibaba, Tencent, Lufthansa Airlines, Heineken, Hugo Boss, Rituals Cosmetics and SAP, as well rapidly-growing disruptors such as Uber, Glovo, HelloFresh, and Deliveroo.

ABOUT MESSAGEBIRD

Founded in 2011 and bootstrapped for the first 6 years, MessageBird is the world’s leading omnichannel cloud communications platform offering a suite of both Omnichannel Products and Cloud Communications API’s that enable developers and enterprises to communicate with customers in virtually every corner of the planet, and on any channel.

The company, founded in 2011, was bootstrapped and profitable for six years before raising one of the largest Series A rounds for a European software business ($60M from US-based Accel Partners and UK’s Atomico).

MessageBird is trusted by more than 15,000 customers, from established brands such as Lufthansa Airlines, Heineken, Hugo Boss, Rituals Cosmetics and SAP, as well rapidly-growing disruptors such as Uber, HelloFresh, and Deliveroo.

The company maintains offices in Amsterdam, San Francisco, Singapore, Bogota, London, Shanghai, Dublin, Hamburg and Sydney.

ABOUT SPARK CAPITAL

We are Spark Capital, investors in products we love by creators we admire, including Affirm, Carta, Cruise, Discord, Oculus, Plaid, Postmates, Slack, Twitter, and Wayfair. We know there are no playbooks or formulas for success and are here to help founders win their own way. We invest across all sectors and stages, and work out of San Francisco, Boston, and New York City.

Related Links :

https://www.messagebird.com

PR Newswire

Event Store Secures Series A Investment

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BATH, England, Sept. 30, 2020 — Event Store today announces it has secured Series A financing from strategic investor Qualasept Holdings (‘QH’). 

Event Store is the company behind EventStoreDB, the popular open source event stream database. EventStoreDB was open sourced in 2012 and has relatively quietly built a strong commercial business. In late 2018, Event Store Limited was formed and an expanded leadership, engineering, and support team were introduced. The Series A investment represents Event Store’s next stage of growth towards EventStoreDB’s adoption in the broader database market.

EventStoreDB is an operational “source of record” database technology.  It has similarities to event-oriented integration technologies, such as Apache Kafka, from a stream and API perspective. However, it was built for database workloads from the start. Dave Remy, Event Store CEO, explains, “Most mainstream database technologies, whether relational, graph, or document-oriented, keep the latest state of the data, throwing away the old data when it changes. In contrast, EventStoreDB, the leader in the emerging class of databases, called Event Stores, is specifically designed to keep the changes along with the business context of those changes, in the form of events. Current state can then be derived from replaying the event stream. This pattern enables a myriad of benefits, including powerful audit, debugging, caching, occasionally connected scenarios, and much more.” 

Event Stores are foundational to the increasingly popular Event Sourcing design pattern.

EventStoreDB is applicable across industries and is particularly valuable for those with challenging audit requirements, such as financial services and healthcare. Innovative companies like Walmart, Xero, Insureon, Linedata, Made.com, UK National Health Service, Swiss Air Traffic Control and many more use EventStoreDB in mission-critical production environments. 

Building on its momentum, the company is launching Event Store Cloud, a multi-cloud database as a service (DBaaS). The subscription service, currently in Preview, will provide cloud convenience and make EventStoreDB more accessible to developers and companies of all sizes.

“As applications increasingly move toward event-driven architectures, foundational platforms like EventStoreDB will be a critical first source of truth in capturing and enabling analysis of event data. This technology will generate meaningful and measurable value across multiple industries,” said Ben Kolada, Director, Head of DataTech at ICON Corporate Finance.

“From the time Greg Young and his team released EventStoreDB in 2012, it has been the go-to database for CQRS and Event Sourcing projects. This Series A investment represents a new stage for Event Store and EventStoreDB. We will accelerate the development of Event Store Cloud, improve the developer experience, increase scalability, and build new products and services to help developers build systems within an event-driven architecture,” Dave Remy said.

Tech investment bank ICON Corporate Finance advised Event Store on the transaction and corporate structuring, while QH was advised by BDO, Roxburgh Milkins Limited, and Alantra. 

Media Contact:
Dan Crosby
Email: dan.crosby@eventstore.com

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PR Newswire

Kharon Announces Barclays As Strategic Investor

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2020 — Kharon, the research and data analytics company focused on global security threats and other controversies that impact global commerce and finance, today announced that Barclays has become a strategic investor in the business, joining Equity Group Investments, and other institutional and private equity investors.

Kharon’s offerings for trade, regulatory and financial crime compliance are recognized as industry leading and the news underscores its shared commitment with Barclays to innovation and data-driven intelligence.

Mark Gibbins, Head of Compliance Services, Barclays, said: “Having worked with Kharon for some time, we are pleased to be strengthening our relationship through this strategic investment. The investment demonstrates Barclays’ commitment to managing compliance requirements by utilizing data to enhance our technology and analytics solutions.”

Kharon’s regtech solutions provide firms across the globe with unmatched, critical intelligence and analytics on their customers, supply chains, investments, and risk areas. The result is reduced risk, realized efficiencies and the creation of value.

Matthew Epstein, CEO, Kharon, said: “We are delighted to welcome Barclays as a strategic investor. Barclays’ move from client to partner and now to investor, reflects our shared belief in the broad industry and geographical applicability of Kharon’s technology, analytic products and expertise.”

He added: “From risk and compliance teams seeking to strengthen KYC and screening processes; to technology providers keen to examine every stage of their supply chain; to investors looking to assess a company’s long-term performance; Kharon supports companies in a wide range of industries around the world. This diverse client base coupled with our groundbreaking technology platform has given us the strongest of foundations on which to continue to build.”

Equity Group Investments (EGI), founded by Sam Zell, has been an investor in Kharon since 2016. The firm’s President, Mark Sotir, commented: “In an increasingly challenging risk environment, Kharon’s unique data and analytics solutions provide highly relevant and differentiated compliance insights to its customers. We are pleased to be a strategic capital partner to a top-line specialist with a strong leadership team, and to welcome Barclays as a co-investor.”

About Kharon
Kharon is a leading provider of research and data analytics, focused on global security threats and other controversies that impact global commerce and finance. Kharon’s clients include first tier international financial institutions, global corporates, public sector entities and professional services firms. Kharon is headed by former senior officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and experienced professionals in software development and data science.

For more information or to join the Kharon team, visit www.kharon.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @kharondata.

About Barclays
Barclays is a British universal bank. The company is diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Barclays’ businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by their service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group.

For further information about Barclays, please visit www.home.barclays.

About Equity Group Investments
Equity Group Investments is the private investment firm founded by Sam Zell more than 50 years ago. Based in Chicago, EGI invests opportunistically across industries and geographies and throughout the capital structure. Current portfolio investments are in healthcare, energy, waste and infrastructure, transportation and logistics, agribusiness, and real estate. EGI provides flexible capital and employs an engaged ownership approach to maximize the potential of its investments. For more information on EGI, visit www.egizell.com.

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Related Links :

http://www.kharon.com

PR Newswire

Indonesian Logistics Tech Startup Waresix Closes c.US$100 Million Fundraising

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Summary

  • Waresix seeks to digitally transform the US$55 billion Indonesian trucking and warehousing sector.
  • Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Waresix has scaled up rapidly to support the distribution of essential goods to over 100 cities across Indonesia and to provide logistics services to primary sectors.
  • As the world’s largest archipelago, distribution of goods is a major pain point in Indonesia. Waresix offers unique solutions to address distribution challenges, in line with the government’s aim to reduce the country’s logistics costs to 19% of GDP.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 10, 2020 — Waresix, Indonesia’s leading logistics tech platform, today announced that it has concluded its Series B fundraising, and over the last year raised c.US$100 million from existing investors EV Growth and Jungle Ventures, and new investors, including SoftBank Ventures Asia, EMTEK Group, Pavilion Capital and Redbadge Pacific.

Waresix Team at Waresix Office
Waresix Team at Waresix Office

Waresix is the leading logistics tech platform in Indonesia in the trucking and warehousing segments. Trucking services, which form the majority of Waresix’s business, is focused on first-mile and mid-mile intercity shipments. Waresix’s deep operational involvement as a provider of managed services enables it to identify key value and efficiency-generating solutions for its clients beyond passive demand and supply matching. Waresix’s solutions, including consolidation, back-haul optimization and hub-and-spoke distribution, can achieve 50% higher truck utilization than traditional shippers, and have contributed towards Waresix rapid scaling, while generating positive net income. Waresix has been profitable on a net income basis since June 2019.

Waresix now serves more than 250 marquee corporate clients from diverse industries, including clients within the commodities, fast-moving consumer goods, industrial consumables, infrastructure, and retail sectors. Notable customers include Unilever, Indofood, Siam Cement Group, Wings, JD.ID and numerous other MNCs. Waresix’s logistics ecosystem spans over 40,000 trucks and 375 warehouses in more than 100 cities and towns across Indonesia. Waresix’s integration with key logistics facilities, such as Indonesia’s National Ports, has allowed the company to expand its reach beyond Java and Sumatra, to all of Indonesia’s main islands.

Waresix Truck
Waresix Truck

Waresix has been developing a unified operating system-like platform for its partners, with the goal of improving partners’ daily operations pertaining to their vendors and customers. The platform further provides a compact, single view of partners’ consignments across transport channels and transit warehouses. Waresix’s platform distinguishes itself from other logistics companies that primarily focus on building passive load-board and listings, to match supply and demand. Waresix continues to tackle core logistical challenges by going beyond matching supply with demand through cultivating a managed-service ecosystem. This has positioned Waresix to address challenges and generate enduring solutions faced by its demand and supply partners.

Despite disruptions brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has continued to achieve remarkable results, with rapid growth in its first-mile and mid-mile trucking services while supporting the efficient flow of essential goods and the livelihoods of thousands of truck drivers across the country.

At its core, Waresix believes that logistics, being a major bottleneck in the fast-growing Indonesian economy, provides ample opportunity for innovation within the e-trucking sector. Furthermore, the Indonesian government continues to invest in the country’s physical infrastructure, which serves as further sector catalysts. With technology and a customer-first mindset deeply embedded in Waresix’s DNA, Waresix is well-placed to propel efficiency within Indonesia’s complex logistics ecosystem.

Andree Susanto, CEO of Waresix, said, "We are excited to on-board a group of high-quality long-term investors and partners that have committed to support Waresix in our journey to be the new engine for trade and commerce growth in Indonesia. The capital will be invested to develop the most robust logistics technology infrastructure in South East Asia, and further build out our world-class team to help us seize a large market opportunity."

Edwin Wibowo, CFO of Waresix said, "We are not just driven by technology, but also driven by a passion to solve real problems, and innovating via technology. We have proven this in the last two years, which is why our clients love us and our business has continued to scale until today."

About Waresix

Waresix is a tech-enabled platform offering logistics services and solutions to customers in a more efficient and economic manner. It connects shippers and businesses with available transporters, trucks and warehouse space across Indonesia, providing better transparency, quality of service, and improving income for asset owners. Its expansive ecosystem now reaches over 40,000 trucks and 375 warehouse operators across the archipelago.

The archipelagic makeup of Indonesia has resulted in one of the highest logistics costs in Asia, accounting for nearly a quarter of the country’s US$1 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). This high logistics cost not only hampers Indonesia’s industrial competitiveness but also adds to Indonesian SME’s cost of doing business. Waresix seeks to address challenges and generate enduring solutions for its supply and demand partners in the US$240 billion Indonesian logistics market.

You can read more about us at waresix.com

Photo – https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200910/2912421-1-a?lang=0
Photo – https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200910/2912421-1-b?lang=0

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G-ray Switzerland announces new CEO, closes successful funding round

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NEUCHÂTEL, Switzerland, Aug. 31, 2020 — G-ray Switzerland, the medical imaging and industrial diagnosis start-up founded in 2014, has announced the appointment of Luis Pallares as Chief Executive Officer, as the company embarks on an accelerated growth drive and completes a successful funding round.

Mr Pallares is focused on leading the transformation of G-ray’s business development efforts following the company’s development of a disruptive and patented state of the art technology to bring safer, cheaper and better vision into imaging for medical and industrial diagnosis.

Mr Pallares joins G-ray with a wealth of entrepreneurial and start-up experience, having founded Spain’s first streaming service, Addhoc Streaming, Spanish-speaking health related content site Vivir Mejor, and Spain’s leading digital strategy firm, Nennisiwok.

Most recently Mr Pallares’ deep experience in technology development, artificial intelligence and digital advertising led him found Plyzer Technologies, a global leader of price comparison technology matched with business analytics and intelligence based on artificial intelligence.

The appointment coincides with the news that G-ray has also raised a further CHF 2.6 millions, enabling it close out its successful Series A funding round at CHF 28 million.

Luis Pallares, Chief Executive Officer of G-ray, said: "G-ray has already proven to be a positive disruptive force within the technology industry and I relish the opportunity to help deliver tangible progress by bringing improvements in imaging into medical and industrial diagnosis."

Mr Yves Claude Aubert, Chairman of G-ray Switzerland, said: "Our technology has already started to disrupt the multi-billion particle detection imaging markets, based on our proprietary and transformative unique detector architecture. As artificial intelligence impacts the traditional X ray detector market, Luis is the perfect choice to lead G-ray forward into a new phase of growth and to capture these opportunities.

About G-ray Switzerland

Founded in 2014 in Neuchâtel, G-ray Switzerland SA has filed a number of revolutionary patents in the fields of radiographic imaging and new semiconductor assembly techniques. The rapidly expanding company has developed core skills in monolithic detectors with integrated high-resolution CMOS circuits. These innovations cover a wide range of sectors, including automotive, aerospace and medicine. www.g-ray.ch

 

 

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PR Newswire

Delivery Robot Company Pudu Robotics raised Nearly $15 Million in Series B+ Financing, Led by Sequoia Capital China

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SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 28, 2020 — On August 19, the indoor delivery robot company Pudu Robotics announced the completion of Series B+ round of nearly $15 Million led by Sequoia Capital China. Existing shareholders Meituan, Everwin Investment, QC Capital, and Chengbohan Fund all joined this round of financing. This is Pudu Robotics’s second round of financing in just two months. On July 1 this year, Pudu Robotics raised the Series B financing of more than $15 Million exclusively invested by Meituan. 

Pudu Robotics all series of products
Pudu Robotics all series of products

Guo Shanshan, a partner of Sequoia Capital China, the lead investor in this round, said, "Robots are a new form of labor and are also the focus of our continued attention. Pudu has deep accumulation in the field of service robots. It started by providing delivery robots to the catering industry and has begun to expand to more diverse working scenarios. The demand of customers for this type of new labor is constantly growing, and we believe that service robots will soon become standard configuration in many industries."

Pudu Robotics is a global benchmark company in the field of delivery robots. Since its establishment in 2016, it has maintained rapid growth, and its products have been sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world. Zhang Tao, CEO of Pudu, said that the funds from this Series B+ Financing would be mainly used to expand the market of the company’s delivery robot business, as well as its robot businesses in other scenarios.

Linhong Jiang
Phone: +86-400-0826-660
E-mail: business@pudutech.com  
https://www.pudutech.com/en

Photo – https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200828/2902205-1?lang=0

 

PR Newswire

Industrial AI Solutions Startup MakinaRocks raises $10M in Series A

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Hyundai Motors, LG, Applied Ventures participate in Series A

SEOUL, South Korea and SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 12, 2020 — MakinaRocks, an industrial AI solutions startup aiming to revolutionize the world of manufacturing, announced today that it has successfully raised $10 million in Series A funding from prestigious global investors.

MakinaRocks, based in Seoul and Silicon Valley, specializes in industrial AI with a primary focus on providing intelligent control for anomaly detection in manufacturing equipment and improved product quality. The Series A participants include strategic investors LG Technology Ventures, Hyundai Motors and Applied Ventures, LLC, and financial investors Korea Development Bank, Daesung Venture Capital, Shinhan Investment Corporation, and HB Investment.

In its 2018 seed-round funding, MakinaRocks was successful in securing some of the leading Korean conglomerates, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motors, and Naver, as investors.

"Our innovative technology tailored to solve complex manufacturing challenges enables our customers to grow and compete globally," remarked Andre Yoon and Jaehyuk Lee, Co-CEOs of MakinaRocks. "The unique potential of MakinaRocks has attracted some of the largest companies to invest in us."

"We believe artificial intelligence and machine learning will transform the way semiconductor, display, and other high-end factories operate, redefining the concept for manufacturing including process optimization and maintenance," noted Anand Kamannavar, Global Head of Applied Ventures. "Through this investment in MakinaRocks, we are excited to help accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies for multiple industries. Applied Ventures will continue looking for innovative start-ups globally in the areas of AI and machine learning as part of our strategy to invest across the Materials to Systems™ ecosystem."

MakinaRocks has collaborated with major corporations in various industries to apply its solution to a wide range of production lines. The results have shown overall improvement and increased efficiency of operation rate and quality by predicting equipment failure and anomalies while streamlining production processes  through intelligent control.

MakinaRocks expects to use the funds to expand the company’s portfolio and develop a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform built on the existing on-premise solutions to secure domestic and international customers. The company is actively hiring skilled individuals in data analysis, AI development, and business development. 

About MakinaRocks

Founded in 2017, MakinaRocks is a startup specializing in industrial machine intelligence. Using proprietary technology in anomaly detection and intelligent control, MakinaRocks’ solutions use sensor and numeric data to detect anomalies in equipment, increase product quality, and improve process control. Our solutions enhance the product and production processes of various industries such as semiconductors, automobiles,  batteries, and energy. For more information, visit www.makinarocks.ai.

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