Day: January 6, 2022

X0PA AI, an AI-powered hiring solutions company in Singapore, has secured US$4.2 million in Series A funding, led by ICCP SBI Venture Partners (ISVP), a partnership between ICCP Venture Partners and SBI Holdings.

Co-investors of this round are SEEDS Capital, AI8 Ventures, XCEL NEXT VENTURES, and SASV Investments (X0PA got connected with XCEL NEXT through e27 Connect).

The startup plans to use the capital to expand into Asia, the US, Latin America, and Europe. The funds will also support its product enhancements and innovation.

Now more than ever, organisations are looking to increase diversity in their workplaces and reduce bias while lowering the time and cost to hire the best talent. A SaaS firm, X0PA helps in talent acquisition, hiring, assessment, using Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation. It offers a range of AI-powered products, developed on Microsoft Azure, aiming to reduce manual recruitment and selection processes, increase inclusion, and solve people sourcing problems for enterprises, academia and government.

Also Read: These Artificial Intelligence startups are proving to be industry game-changers

X0PA claims its intelligent hiring solutions are designed to maximise objectivity in talent selection and leverage automation to empower candidates and employers to get the most equitable and desirable hiring outcomes.

“Recruitment and selections can have significant bias, inequity and inefficiencies. We are looking to change the game in equitable hiring and selections by reducing unconscious bias and subjectivity, leading to more diverse workplaces and better selection outcomes,” said Nina Alag Suri, Founder and CEO of X0PA.

Said Tan Kaixin, GM of SEEDS Capital, said, “Equitable and inclusive hiring practices are emerging priorities for organisations worldwide as they look to increase diversity in teams. Through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, X0PA’s solutions enable an objective and seamless hiring process, which has the potential to transform and uplift HR practices.”

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Image Credit: X0PA AI

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Willix Halim, CEO and President Director, Bukalapak

Indonesian e-commerce giant Bukalapak today announced that Willix Halim has been nominated by the company’s board of commissionaire as its new President Director and CEO.

Following the resignation of Rachmar Kaimuddin on December 30, 2021, Halim has been in charge as interim CEO of the company.

Kaimuddin left Bukalapak to join the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment as a Technology & Sustainability Development Special Advisor.

According to the Forbes report, the company’s shares fell as much as 4.9 per cent after the resignation was being announced, touching an all-time low of IDR430.

Also Read: The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year

In addition to this announcement, the company also announced that the board has nominated Victor Putra Lesmana and Howard Nugraha Gani into the Board of Directors. Teddy Nuryanto Oetomo and Natalia Firmansyah will continue to serve as Directors of the company

Halim joined Bukalapak in 2016 as COO. The company named him as one of the key players in securing its unicorn status.

Throughout his time at the company, he had also contributed to the development of Mitra Bukalapak, its online-to-offline (O2O) offering, in addition to expanding its variety of digital services and products.

Halim has a First Class Honors degree in Computer Science and Mechatronics from the University of Melbourne.

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Image Credit: Bukalapak

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An Aerodyne drone

Malaysia’s global drone services company Aerodyne Group has agreed to acquire a principal stake in Malaysia-based AI and data analytics company Synapse Innovation for an undisclosed amount.

Aerodyne expects the investment to “supercharge” its AI and data analytics capabilities and strengthen the technology support for its international operations, spanning 35 countries.

Together, Aerodyne and Synapse will develop the next-generation drone data intelligence platform, coupled with smart nested autonomous drone solutions.

CEO Dr Afnizanfaizal Abdullah, a prominent AI scientist in Malaysia, will continue to lead Synapse and remain a business shareholder.

Aerodyne Group Founder and CEO Kamarul A Muhamed said, “This investment into Synapse is the first of many future M&As focusing on enhancing the breadth and depth of our second data technology pillar. Aerodyne Group also intends to accelerate Synapse’s growth plans exponentially under its technology ecosystem building agenda to champion Malaysia’s technology.”

Also Read: Malaysian drones services firm Aerodyne adds Japanese investors to its cap table

Headquartered in Johor, Synapse focuses on designing and developing machine learning algorithms for cloud-based predictive analytics services for various sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure and oil and gas. Its services cover big data analytics, automation in data processing, and mobile-based applications.

According to Abdullah, being an Aerodyne-backed company will help accelerate Synapse’s scale-up plans to grow its operations from 30 data scientists to 500 AI engineers and data scientists within two to three years.

Established in 2014, Aerodyne Group is a DT3 (drone-tech, data-tech and digital transformation) company. It uses Artificial Intelligence as an enabling technology for large-scale data operations, analytics and process optimisation. The group employs over 700 drone professionals to operate in the UAS services sector. It claims to have managed more than 560,000 infrastructure assets and surveyed over 380,000 km of power infrastructure across 35 countries globally.

In May 2021, Aerodyne announced a strategic investment from a consortium of Japanese investors, comprising Real Tech Fund, Kobashi Holdings and ACSL.

Two years earlier, the group secured US$30 million in a Series B investment round, led by InterVest/Kejora Ventures, with participation from VentureTECH, Gobi Partners and 500 Startups. This round was extended with an investment from North Summit Capital, Arc Ventures, and Leave a Nest in February 2020.

In December 2019, Aerodyne acquired a controlling stake in the services business of Measure UAS, an aerial intelligence company in the US.

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Pandai co-founders

Pandai, an edutech startup based in Kuala Lumpur, has secured a total of US$2.03 million across pre-seed and seed rounds of investment from a group of investors, including Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, 500 Global, Soma Capital, and Harvard.

RHL Ventures, Falnas Capital, and Kembara Kapital, besides an ex-Google director, unicorn startup founders, and several unnamed prominent entrepreneurs from Malaysia, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the US co-invested.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

Pandai is the Malaysian edutech startup to be accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator programme.

“The fund will be used to enhance the app to give a better learning experience for school students, as well as assist their parents and teachers. We are also looking to collaborate with educational institutions and other education providers,” said Pandai Co-Founder and CEO Khairul Anwar bin Mohamad Zaki.

Pandai was founded in January 2020 by Zaki, Akmal Akhpah and Suhaimi Ramly, who have worked in the education industry for the past 14 years.

A mobile app, Pandai focuses on learning and assessment to help primary and secondary school students improve their academic performance. It allows students to learn using gamified quizzes aligned to the national curriculum. Students also receive personalised analysis using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Also Read: Edutech is surging, but here are the 3 issues it is facing

Dedicated modules for parents and teachers are also integrated within the app to monitor and support students’ progress.

The edutech startup claims it has more than 300,000 registered students registered on the app.

“We launched Pandai in 2020 to make quality, personalised education accessible to every student. We want to bring impact not only in Malaysia but also in other countries by expanding Pandai to other markets in the future,” added Zaki.

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Image Credit: Pandai

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Startup Oi, a Singapore-based social media and talent matching platform for engineers, has bagged US$1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by local VC firm January Capital.

Co-investors are Goodwater Capital, SonTech Ventures, Mohammed Alabsi (ex-Bukalapak SVP of engineering), Pritesh Gupta (ex-cofounder of Zipgo), and Nikhil Lalwani (president and CEO of ANI Pharmaceuticals).

Startup Oi plans to utilise the money to expand its global team. Its goal is to reach 2 million users throughout Asia and beyond in the next two years, starting with engineering talent hotbeds such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.

The company has just launched its flagship app on iPhone and Android. It will be launching blockchain gamified e-learning and community building features to encourage high engagement from users over the next year. 

Also read: Is Southeast Asia facing a tech talent crisis in the midst of rapid growth?

Startup Oi was founded in 2021 by Sakshi Jawa (CEO) and Rob Creekmore (CPO and CTO) — both have extensive experience as high-level executives at e-commerce giants, including Amazon, Coupang, and Tiki. 

Startup Oi positions itself as a work-and-play social network for engineers. It addresses the gap in legacy social networks and communities by supporting engineers in all aspects, including finding jobs, joining e-learning, finding mentors, building careers, and having fun with common interests.

The startup helps connect global engineers and link them with companies, serving as a personalised job search. 

“Our vision goes beyond just Startup Oi. We want to connect engineers around the world to foster innovation at a global level,” said Jawa.

The company claims to have formed direct connections with more than 50 businesses in the area, emphasising filling the engineer shortage in Vietnam first. It has also appointed Phuc Truong as COO, formerly a senior manager (talent acquisition) at Tiki. 

The startup boasts of listing hundreds of jobs in Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Indonesia in less than a month, with a waitlist of more than 20,000 engineers. 

So far, the startup has made a presence in Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.

According to US Labor statistics, as of December 2020, the global talent shortage amounted to 40 million developers worldwide and is expected to reach 85.2 million by 2030. Companies worldwide risk losing US$8.4 trillion in revenue because of this lack of skilled talent, opening up room for innovative solutions in both edutech and human resource (HR) tech.

In Vietnam alone, there is a shortage of 500,000 IT personnel, especially high-skilled engineers, according to a report of Vietnam’s IT recruitment platform TopDev. 

Meanwhile, only around 5,000 IT students graduate annually from universities, of which the training programmes do not fully meet businesses’ requirements.

Last year, some startups addressing this challenge also secured initial fundings. They include Singapore’s Rocket Academy and Vietnam’s CoderSchool.

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Image Credit: Startup Oi

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