Day: November 26, 2019

Abhishek Chatterjee, CEO & Founder of Tookitaki

Tookitaki Holding Pte. Ltd. (Tookitaki), a Singapore-based regulatory technology (regtech) company announces that it has received an extended funding of its Series A funding round for US$1.7 million led by Viola Fintech, an Israeli US$100 million cross-stage venture fund, and SIG, a global venture firm with early to mid-stage investments in over nine Asia-founded unicorn startups. They were joined by Nomura Holdings through its venture capital arm (Nomura Incubation Investment Limited Partnership) as well as existing investors including Illuminate Financial, Jungle Ventures, and Spring SEEDs Capital, an investment arm of the Singapore government.

With this new growth investment, Tookitaki has extended its Series A funding round to US$19.2 million.

The company said that it plans to use the funding to enhance its product offerings, help around research and development, recruitment, and to drive Tookitaki’s global expansion – with the US and Asia-Pacific as priority markets Singapore & New York, US.

Tookitaki was co-founded by entrepreneurs Abhishek Chatterjee, its CEO, and Jeeta Bandopadhyay, COO.

Abhishek is a former associate at JP Morgan, had observed the 2008 financial crisis first-hand, following which he noted that regulators were stricter about financial checks and balances in a bid to maintain financial stability. However, the overall volume of digital banking and e-money transactions rose swiftly over time.

Also Read: Regulatory tech company Tookitaki raises US$7.5M in Series A funding round

Tookitaki was formed in November 2014 from this need to provide sustainable compliance programs in banking and financial services industry (BFS), using technology that is powered by machine learning and distributed data-parallel architecture. Its key offerings include an Anti-Money Laundering Suite (AMLS) and a Reconciliation Suite (RS).

Abhishek Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of Tookitaki shared, “Our vision has always been to ensure sustainable compliance programs for every financial institution in the world. Backed by our strategic global investors, we are better placed to deliver on this vision by growing our presence significantly across the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region.”

“This will enable us to offer our partners and customers the enhanced solutions around the anti-money laundering (AML) and reconciliation spaces, driving sustainability in their systems, processes and software investments,” Chatterjee added.

Along with the funding, Joe Friscia, former President of NICE Actimize, ex-Viola Fintech investee, has also joined Tookitaki on its board of advisors. Friscia will contribute over 30 years of experience in the financial crime and enterprise software spaces and will accelerate Tookitaki’s expansion in America.

In addition to its U.S. expansion, the company will expand its R&D team in Singapore and Bangalore, India. To drive this initiative, it has appointed Subhas Samanta, former Director at LinkedIn, as Vice President of Research and Development of Tookitaki.

Also Read: Here are the top startups in the Singapore AI scene, plus some observations from an investor perspective

Tookitaki has also partnered with United Overseas Bank, which is the third-largest bank in Southeast Asia that has 500 offices across 19 countries, to operationalise a machine learning-powered AML solution within the bank’s current infrastructure.

Tookitaki recently filed a patent on explainable AI and machine learning framework and models to bring transparency into the validation process and output interpretability by banking customers and regulators.

www.tookitaki.ai

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India’s Paytm raises US$1B at US$16B valuation – Bloomberg

Indian digital payments giant Paytm today announced new funding from existing shareholders such as SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund and new investors, Bloomberg reported.

The company did not disclose further details but a source stated that it raised US$1 billion in equity at a US$16 billion valuation.

The source also said that Paytm is in talks for another US$1 billion in debt.

Bloomberg reported last month that Paytm was close to raising US$2 billion, split between debt and equity.

OYO gets board’s approval to raise US$1.5B from SoftBank, RA Hospitality – Dealstreet Asia

Indian hospitality chain Oyo Hotels & Homes has received its board approval to raise US$1.5 billion in primary capital infusion from its largest investor SoftBank Vision Fund and RA Hospitality, Dealstreet Asia reported.

Expected to value the company at about US$10 billion, this development came a month after it stated that founder Ritesh Agarwal would invest US$700 million in the Series F funding round by subscribing to new shares of the company. It was also said that SoftBank, along with a few investors, would also inject money into the round.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, July 18: Honestbee to suspend services in Malaysia; Ebay picks over 5% stake in Paytm Mall

Singapore’s Tookitaki raises US$1.7M led by Viola Fintech – e27

Tookitaki, a Singapore-based regulatory technology (regtech) company, today announced a US$1.7 million Series A funding round led by Viola Fintech and SIG.

They were joined by Nomura Holdings through its venture capital arm (Nomura Incubation Investment Limited Partnership) as well as existing investors including Illuminate Financial, Jungle Ventures, and Spring SEEDs Capital.

With this new investment, Tookitaki has extended its Series A funding round to US$19.2 million.

The company said that it plans to use the funding to enhance its product offerings, help around research and development, recruitment, and to drive Tookitaki’s global expansion to the US and Asia Pacific.

2C2P raises US$52M funding, focussing on expansion – e27

Thai payments platform startup 2C2P announces that it has raised US$52 million in new funding from IFC, Cento Ventures, and Arbor Ventures.

The company said that it will use the funding to accelerate the company’s growth by investing in new technologies to enhance its payments platform, hiring local talent, and consolidating market share in Southeast Asia with a goal to expand beyond the region over the next year.

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Image Credit: Josh Appel on Unsplash

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The real test of leadership doesn’t occur when everything is going well. Rather, it’s in times of crisis when you get to see how much of a leader you are and whether you can establish your credentials.

But that doesn’t mean you should just wait for things to start going wrong to test your skills. Putting some effort into preparing for situations like this can sometimes mean the difference between success and failure. With that said, it’s a good idea to learn how to lead your team in crisis on time. Here are 6 ways to do this.

1. Project confidence

People tend to get nervous when things start going wrong. This is something you can notice in the way they talk and perform their day-to-day tasks. One of the biggest reasons for this is fear.

They’re afraid their big project will fail or that the company will have to shut down. If you project fear as well, that unease will make it even more difficult for everyone in your team to do well. Therefore, it’s your job to look like you are the master of the situation even if you don’t feel that way. Know how to stay calm and it’ll become easier for everyone else to contribute to the recovery process.

2. Be there for your team

Sometimes, situations like this can be extremely tough for some of your members. Work can start affecting their personal life and things may become even tougher.

It’s the leader’s job to spot employees who are having a hard time and support them as much as you can. Make sure everyone in your company knows they can turn to you with absolutely anything and show them you and your HR team are willing to help. Of course, every situation is different but try to use the breaks you take from helping your company get back on its feet to help others manage work and other responsibilities in their lives.

3. Be decisive

Showing that you don’t know what you’re doing in times of crisis can make the entire situation even worse. If you want to be a good leader, you have to be able to make decisions on the fly. In fact, it’s your job to be ready to make even the hardest decisions in a timely fashion. That’s one of the best ways to show your team that you’re not afraid of taking action.

Also, if some of the decisions you’re supposed to make don’t align with your views and values, make them anyway. Being able to adapt your decisions to your company’s current needs is guaranteed to inspire employees to take the same approach.

4. Focus on cash

A successful turnaround comes down to one thing – cash. If you’re able to take care of your company’s money, you’ll find it easier to deal with the situation and your team will remain calm. The most important thing you have to do is ensure the company has enough to pay the bills and issue paychecks on time.

However, if you really want to master money management, trading and trying to learn more about market psychology is something you just can’t go wrong with. Make some extra cash by trading and you’ll never have to worry about your company running out of money.

5. Stay in control

In times of crisis, your work environment can easily go out of control. It may not seem like that right now but once the chaos starts, you and your team will feel stressed out and that’ll reflect on your work environment.

When things like that happen, it’s imperative for the leader to get a better grip on the situation and show the team everything’s under control. For example, make sure you’re able to delegate tasks quickly enough and keep the office neat, even if that’s not a priority at the moment.

The only way to develop a good recovery plan is if everyone stays calm and your work environment remains the same as it always is.

6. Exercise caution

Just because your business is facing a crisis, it doesn’t mean you and your team members don’t have to be cautious about your work. The more you panic and ignore the stuff you’d normally pay attention to, the more things will go out of control.

That said, it’s your job to exercise caution even when the company’s having a hard time. It’s all about the alertness of mind and your leadership skills. Try to stay calm and observe the operations as if the company wasn’t in a crisis. Get even the smallest tasks right and your company will be on the right track to recover and continue doing business as usual.

Over to you

These are all important things to have in mind if you want you and your staff members to be able to deal with any issues that come up. Get everything right and your business will have no trouble surviving even the biggest crises.

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Image Credit: Mathias Jensen

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Hydroleap, a Singapore-based wastewater treatment startup, has secured SG$2.6 (US$1.9) million in a new round of funding, led by Wavemaker Partners.

Seeds Capital, 500 Durians, and a few unnamed investors, also participated.

Founded by Mohammad Sherafatmand (a PhD from the National University of Singapore in Environmental Engineering), Hydroleap enables wastewater treatment to be cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and automated by replacing expensive chemical treatments with a smart electrical treatment.

It offers an automated modular system that does not need any chemicals to perform. The technology works based on electrochemical principles where low-powered electricity is applied to activate the aqueous solution and form coagulant reagents to attract contaminants.

The technology is applicable for wastewater, construction, food and beverage, oil & gas, tannery, mining and semiconductor industries.

Also Read: From mean to lean – how to build a great startup brand

Currently, the startup provides solutions at construction sites. With this new round, it plans to take its technology to industrial parks, mining, palm oil and semiconductor industries by removing suspended solids, heavy metals, hardness and COD from their wastewater.

In the construction industry, runoff silty water is treated before disposal. Currently, wastewater(s) are treated by adding chemicals (coagulant and flocculants) to the water. According to Hydroleap, this process causes irreversible financial and environmental impact. Hydroleap’s solution of using electricity to treat the water is overall 3X cheaper and 2X smaller than incumbent technologies, it claims.

“Through electrochemistry research, Sherafatmand has developed and commercialised an electrocoagulation system. Competitors from the US and Europe lag in efficiency compared with Hydroleap’s inbuilt proprietary mechanism. Hydroleap’s beachhead market is in construction and enjoys a strong pipeline of projects,” said Paul Santos, Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners.

The startup has previously raised funding from SGInnovate, Sparklabs Cultiv8, Sparklabs Global Ventures and Entrepreneur First.

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