The world today runs on data, and it is a double-edged sword. Marketers have plenty of information to gather to understand consumer behaviour, but at the same time, delving deep into the massive volumes of data to make sense of them is a daunting task. So what future lies in marketing measurement? 

The end of third-party cookies

One of the challenges in marketing measurement is the decline in trackability, with big players such as Google and Apple cracking down on third-party cookies. As a result, marketers will have significant hurdles in monitoring online behaviour to reach the right audiences.

Data explosion and tougher competition

About 10,000 marketing platforms and tools are out there, making it excruciatingly difficult to find the best way to handle all the data companies generate. Many companies gather more data than they can deal with, resulting in mountains of siloed data left ignored. 

Adding to the explosion of data is the rising competition in online marketing. The more ads running down feeds, the harder to stand out. The crowded market filled with too much noise also pushes up the cost of ads.

Preparing for the future

With the evolving marketing trends, it is necessary to brace for what is coming. At Echelon Asia Summit 2022, Victor Audienne, Sales Team Leads at AppsFlyer, will moderate a fireside chat with Zalora Group Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer Achint Setia. They will discuss “The future of marketing measurement” and tackle relevant topics such as:

•   Impact on measurement in the new privacy-centric world
•   Mobile ad fraud
•   Customer retention with re-targeting and how to measure its true impact

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Echelon Asia Summit 2022 (October 27-28) returns after a three-year hiatus. It aims to gather the most influential decision-makers and industry leaders from the Southeast Asia tech and startup ecosystem.

Register for Echelon Asia Summit 2022 now!

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Singapore-based insurtech startup bolttech announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum in Series B financing led by Japanese insurance holding company Tokio Marine.

The names of co-investors in this round were not disclosed.

The round values bolttech at approximately US$1.5 billion.

Tokio Marine’s partnership as a strategic investor will complement bolttech’s capabilities and reach, enhancing its distribution strength, product innovation, and balance-sheet capacity. The startup will use the money for its continued global growth.

Also Read: iPhone co-inventor-backed insurtech unicorn bolttech adds US$30M to Series A

Launched in 2020, bolttech aims to make connections between insurers, distributors and customers easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and protection products. It works with insurers, telcos, retailers, banks, e-commerce and digital destinations to embed insurance into their customer journeys at the point of need.

The firm claims it serves customers in 30 markets across North America, Asia, and Europe. Its network has more than 800 distribution partners and 200 insurers and is licensed in 36 international jurisdictions.

The company now quotes approximately US$50 billion worth of annualised premiums through its technology-enabled insurance exchange, the largest in the world.

Early this month, bolttech announced the completion of the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Indonesian insurance broker Axle Asia. This followed bolltech’s strategic investment in UK-based digital insurance advisory Sherpa.

Last year, bolttech secured US$247 million in its Series A round via multiple rounds.

bolttech’s other backers are BRV Capital Management, EDBI, Spanish firm Alma Mundi, Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape, inventor of iPod, and co-inventor of iPhone), Alpha Leonis Partners, Dowling Capital Partners, B. Riley Venture Capital, and Tarsadia Investments.

Tokio Marine was founded in 1879 as Japan’s first insurance company. It has established digital laboratories in seven locations worldwide.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

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Fano Labs, a partner company of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and provider of an AI voice analytics system, has raised an undisclosed sum in funding from AEF Greater Bay Area Fund managed by Gobi Partners GBA.

The round also saw participation from New Vision Capital.

The funds will accelerate Fano Labs’s business expansion across the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia.

In today’s growing and complex financial legislations, financial service institutions such as banks are looking into ensuring that their relationship managers (RM) interact with customers in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Also Read:  To Voice AI or not – The changing face of customer experience

When RMs take an order to execute a transaction, they must take their customer through an extensive product suitability assessment, risk assessment, and risk disclosure before the transaction can occur. The bank records all these conversations so that its risk and compliance departments can later run a sample check and ensure that the sales processes are appropriate, the service quality is good, and the customers’ interests are protected.

However, it is very labour-intensive and costly for banks to arrange a sufficient workforce to manually listen to these tapes and catch the rare bad apples.

Fano Labs’s AI voice analytics system, Callinter, uses language AI technologies to analyse all the banks’ audio records and automatically flag recordings that might contain mistakes, misconducts, or misselling practices. The bank’s risk and compliance professionals can dive deeply into the flagged recordings for closer inspection.

Callinter can operate 24×7 and process audio 100x faster than humans (it can process 100+ hours of audio within one hour of real-world time). This enables banks to monitor sales compliance internally and take remedial actions before things go sour.

With the conversations between RMs and customers fully processed and analysed, banks also use the analysis results to understand better customers’ investment interests and satisfaction levels with the banks’ services. Banks have devised better ways to serve customers and make better investment advice based on such insights.

Also Read: Aiello banks US$5.8M to take its voice AI assistant for hotels beyond Taiwan

“As of today, our technologies have been adopted by 10 of the top 15 banks operating in Hong Kong, five of which are among the world’s top 10 banks by asset values. Our technologies are also used by 12 different public bodies exercising regulatory powers in different sectors to help them conduct supervision tasks more effectively,” said Dr Miles Wen, Co-founder and CEO of Fano Labs.

Fano Labs was started in 2015 by Dr Wen and Professor Victor OK Li. Previously, it received funding from HKSTP, the University of Hong Kong, Horizons Ventures, Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, and Saltagen Ventures.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

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Singapore-based digital wealth advisory platform Endowus has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Carret Private Investments.

Carret is a Hong Kong-based multi-family office asset manager focused on wealth management, private investments and multi-generational wealth planning.

With this acquisition, the Endowus group of companies will now vertically integrate to serve the needs of different client segments and look to provide superior investment and advisory solutions.

Together, the two firms manage client assets of over US$4 billion as of end-June.

The Endowus Group, through Carret Private’s minority shareholding, will also have a strategic partnership with Lumen Capital Investors. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Lumen is a Singapore-based wealth advisor and multi-family office founded and led by private banking veteran Wilfried Kofmehl, former CEO of Bank Julius Baer Singapore.

Also Read: Waste4Change grabs US$5M to shrink Indonesia’s landfills

Samuel Rhee, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Endowus, said: “The combination of Endowus, Carret Private and the partnership with Lumen will allow us to scale and grow faster and lead the industry towards greater transparency and integrity in providing the highest quality wealth advisory services as fiduciaries and the lowest cost access to solutions that help our clients achieve better outcomes.”

Founded in 2017, Endowus has raised US$67 million in funding from investors such as UBS, EDBI, Prosus Ventures, Z Venture Capital, Samsung Ventures, Singtel Innov8, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and SoftBank Ventures Asia.

As of August, Endowus has more than US$2 billion in assets under advice.

Gregory Van, CEO of Endowus said, “We are here to advance the human wealth experience through technology, bringing the right level of personalisation and automation to make expert investing better for all of us. This mission transcends online and offline and touches everyone, from those at the beginning of their wealth journey to the ultra-wealthy.”

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

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Southeast Asia’s leading proptech group PropertyGuru has acquired Sendhelper, a Singapore home services technology company.

The transaction details haven’t been disclosed

With this deal, PropertyGuru intends to provide access to home management and maintenance services.

The acquisition is in line with the group’s growth strategy of expanding into adjacencies of fintech and data while investing in its core marketplaces business towards creating a digital property ecosystem for property seekers, sellers, agents, developers, banks, and valuers.

Shyn Yee Ho-Strangas, MD, Data and Software Solutions, PropertyGuru Group, said: “Our entry into home services is an important step as we create solutions that provide guidance and make each step of the property journey more efficient, transparent, and trusted for everyone in the ecosystem: homeowners, buyers, agents, and developers.”

“Given our shared vision of harnessing data and technology to improve our customers’ experience, we aim to be a force for innovative and game-changing solutions that guide people to make confident property decisions. Over the coming months, we plan to develop Sendhelper solutions and synergies for our partners,” she added.

Founded by Rupam Biswas and Bogdan Metehoui, Sendhelper allows homeowners and tenants in Singapore to search for and book home services for their daily needs through an app that connects them to verified service providers. Its services include cleaning, air conditioner maintenance, and handyman and repair services, among other necessities.

Also Read:Sustainability starts at home: How I aim to tackle climate change as PropertyGuru CEO

Sendhelper network includes over 2,000 trained and verified freelancers in Singapore.

With the addition of Sendhelper, PropertyGuru.com.sg will become a one-stop destination to enable property seekers to find, finance, own, manage and maintain homes.

PropertyGuru’s partners (real estate agents) will also be able to offer home services to their clients (property seekers and landlords) and cater to all their property needs, from housing options to home finance solutions and home maintenance.

Sendhelper is a strategic addition with long-term growth opportunities and is not expected to have a material impact on the group’s 2022 financial results.

Rupam Biswas, Co-Founder, General Manager, Sendhelper, said: “Post-COVID-19, as more people continue to use online solutions for their daily needs, with PropertyGuru, we aim to digitise the customer journey for home needs effectively. We look forward to co-creating tech solutions that will further ease the home services booking experience and increase users’ access to organised help as opposed to informal or ad-hoc sources.”

According to a 2021 report of the Department of Statistics in Singapore, households in Singapore have brought in higher incomes over the last ten years amid a growing trend of married, dual-career couples. This suggests that households will increasingly depend on outsourced help to manage and maintain their homes and home services will be in high demand.

PropertyGuru claims it empowers over 40 million property seekers with more than 3.5 million real estate listings, in-depth insights, and solutions that enable them to make confident property decisions across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post PropertyGuru forays into home services with Sendhelper acquisition appeared first on e27.