‘Create2Earn’ metaverse Chillchat bags US$1.85M led by Solana Ventures

“Create2Earn” metaverse Chillchat has secured US$1.85 million in a seed funding round led by Solana Ventures.

Several blockchain gaming and Web3 investors participated, including FTX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Griffin Gaming Partners, A&T Capital, YGGSEA, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Diamond Hands Ventures, and the PKO Investments syndicate.

The funding will be utilised to expand Chillchat’s product and growth teams to further develop its Web3 tools, channels and infrastructure.

Founded in 2019, Chillchat is a pixel art gaming metaverse that runs on the Solana blockchain. Its “Create2Earn” virtual world focuses on user-generated content that players can quickly and easily create in the form of non-fungible-token (NFT) characters, pets, worlds — all on mobile or browser — and instantly buy, sell, or trade with other players.

Also read: More than hype: 3 reasons why NFTs are here to stay 

Chillchat creates a first-generation digital community of limited 1,500 “Origin” characters. These handcrafted and animated Origins will spawn all future Chillchat characters.

The startup’s unique tools include Pixel Editor for players to create and mint NFTs, World Builder to build new worlds, and World Scripting to convert self-built worlds into fully functioning games.

Singapore’s M-DAQ buys B2B cross-border payments provider Wallex

M-DAQ, a Singapore-based fintech firm facilitating cross-border transactions with forex (FX) solutions, has acquired Wallex, a B2B cross-border payments provider with licenses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. 

In addition to the amount paid for the complete acquisition, M-DAQ will inject fresh working capital to accelerate the Wallex business.

“M-DAQ will be the upstream FX provider to supply Wallex with the necessary liquidity it needs to run its core payments business,” said M-DAQ Founder and Group CEO Richard Koh. “This B2B2B2C business model is an ecosystem of businesses that complements each other, reduces duplication, increases efficiency, and ultimately reduces transaction costs for the end clients, as economies of scale are materialised.”

M-DAQ clients can utilise Wallex’s versatile electronic tools for funds transfers through its existing currency corridors, further improving reporting accuracy and regulatory reporting requirements.

Also read: The next fintech innovation will be a customer-led phenomenon

Founded in 2016, Wallex offers services in more than 180 countries. Businesses can benefit from advanced multi-currency solutions to collect payments via virtual accounts and hold funds in a digital wallet.

Wallex also supports fintech firms in Asia to build cross-border offerings tailored to their customer needs with customisable APIs.

Uzbek fintech firm IMAN nets US$1M seed round to foster BNPL in Muslim-majority markets

Uzbekistan-based Islamic fintech startup IMAN has closed its US$1 million seed round led by Singapore- and US-based institutional investors, alongside some unnamed angels.

The backers are Battery Road Digital Holdings, Tesla Capital, Uzcard Ventures, MyAsiaVC, Le Mercier’s Capital, Block0, Vector Crypto Capital, and IT-Park Investments.

The investment will help IMAN scale its technology to integrate seamlessly with retail partners, both online and offline, to provide finance in seconds across Uzbekistan.

The startup also plans to aggressively roll out partnerships with merchants across all sectors, including beauty & fashion, FMCG, and services, and explore opportunities in other Muslim-majority markets in early 2023.

Founded in 2020, IMAN offers IMAN Pay, a “halal” buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solution catering to Muslim-majority markets, and IMAN Invest, which allows people across the world to fund consumers’ purchases directly at the point of sale.

Via the two products, IMAN said that it provides halal BNPL and builds halal funding sources for such service. In this way, IMAN Invest finances profitable projects offline at IMAN Pay outlets. Profit is then is divided between the partner investor and IMAN every three months.

Also read: The rising era of buy now, pay later in APAC

The startup boasts that its halal BNPL has now connected to more than 100 merchants offering goods and services across consumer electronics, household appliances, sports, healthcare, and education.

Besides, IMAN Invest has also clocked more than 30,000 active users and managed US$1.2million from more than 1,000 retail investors based in over 60 countries.

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Image Credit: Chillchat

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Singapore-based Princeton Digital Group (PDG) has closed an over US$500 million equity investment, with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company leading the round with a US$350 million injection.

Its existing shareholders, Warburg Pincus and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

The funds will enable Princeton Digital Group to deepen its presence in Japan, India, Singapore, China, and Indonesia and accelerate its expansion plans into other markets.

Established in 2017, Princeton Digital Group invests, develops and operates internet infrastructure. It serves internet and cloud companies and financial institutions with scalable internet infrastructure and data centre services.

Headquartered in Singapore with a presence and operations in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan, Princeton Digital Group operates a portfolio of 20 data centres with over 600MW of secured capacity and spanning five countries.

Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, CEO (Real Estate and Infrastructure Investments) at Mubadala, said: “PDG is a leading data centre infrastructure platform operating in an attractive market with strong tailwinds and catering to rising demand from the hyperscale segment and more broadly Asia’s digital economies. We look forward to working with PDG to capitalise on the growth opportunities and create a sustainable, long-term value creation.”

In 2020-21, PDG had raised nearly US$600 million. This included a US$230 million from China Merchants Bank in April 2021 and a US$360 million round led by Ontario Teachers in October 2020.

Asia is one of the fastest-growing data centre regions globally, driven by solid market fundamentals such as a large base of internet users, the growth of digitalisation, high levels of data usage and an increasing tech-savvy young population.

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I had spent two years working as a French language teacher for high-school students. In love with languages and the process of learning, I dreamt of being a teacher since childhood and considered this profession a perfect fit for myself.

Later, I’ve given up teaching for pursuing copywriting, working as a ghost and an essay writer for college students between whiles.

Now, I’m a professional copywriter and guest contributor, currently blogging at Bid4Papers and freelancing as a content creator. I do data research, content writing, repurposing, and distribution.

Why I decided to make the change

I loved the actual teaching. But when I chose this profession, I forgot about one tiny detail: introversion!

All collaboration and social interaction behind the class was hard to handle: noisy kids, regular talks with parents, — let’s face it, far from all agree with a teacher’s feedback, arguing rather than listening — group work… They all drove me nuts.

Stresses and burnouts were not long in coming. And the time is ripe for my disillusion with a teacher’s daily routine. Every time I went to the class, I thought I couldn’t deal with the school environment anymore. It was a kind of work depression, with all physical and mental problems that it implies.

The moment of truth

It was my boyfriend who helped me drive home to reality. One day, after I came back from school nervous and willing to ‘kill those who invented parents’ evenings,’ he said, “It’s just not your thing.”

And it was that very moment, after two years in school, when I stopped and thought first about what was MY thing, actually.

I took a seat, a sheet of paper, and a pen; I wrote down my hard and soft skills to see what work I could do that would fit my inwardness as well. I even checked different coding boot camps in Chicago, believing in the power of cross-skilling and IT for my future career.

Also Read: Beyond burn out: Why you should also celebrate the pursuit and not just wins

But long story short, writing appeared to be the best option to try.

How did I go about making the shift?

It was a game-changer that led me to a successful career as a content architect in love with neuro-copywriting. And it allowed me to beat the impostor syndrome and reach (finally!) a work-life balance.

Once I left my school job, I started looking for freelance writing opportunities. I had two problems that day: I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything besides academic writing, and I was strapped for cash.

So, I joined the team of writers at Bid4Papers, who helped students with academic papers. It wasn’t an entirely kosher activity, but it helped me network, polish my writing skills, and take the next step toward professional copywriting and ghostwriting.

My mistake was to consider this work something terrible and unfair.

I didn’t work on building a personal brand and promoting my writing services because of that. And it cost me tons of nerves, portfolio absence, and problems with self-identification.

Hundreds of my articles were live online without my name in bylines. It led to difficulties with getting freelance offers – people wanted to see my work, but I couldn’t provide them with anything worthy.

But once I’ve managed my self-presentation, I already had enough background and skillset to ask fair charges for my services.

The most challenging thing about shifting to a startup

I was leaving my comfort zone of a nerdy academic and stepping outside some of my inner principles.

It was more like a struggle with my demons, my one-sided vision of education, and my rose-tinted glasses about noble people in a business world. But thanks to this struggle, I was able to adapt my knowledge and skills to the market demand.

Also Read: Why I left Silicon Valley to build a coding boot camp in Singapore

Online courses, webinars, niche blogs, and conferences on copywriting and digital marketing were (and are!) my best friends to stay tuned, polish my skills, and get inspiration for new writing projects.

Also, I am lucky to work with professional editors who are strict but fair to say something like, “It’s bulls**t, revise it all!” or “Your grammar sucks, go and re-read Strunk’s Elements of Style!” They don’t allow me to relax and stop learning.

The biggest lesson

There’s no pure black or pure white in this world. To succeed, you need to develop emotional intelligence and adapt to that grey reality.

Don’t stop learning and trying new things. Even if it seems useless or controversial at first, every skill you have will come in handy one day.

If you feel uncomfortable with your career, it’s never late to make a turn. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, you will doubt. And yes, many will try to dissuade you.

But it is better to take the risk than spend years doing something that doesn’t bring comfort and harmony with your inner self.

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The Urbanmetry team

Urbanmetry, an AI-driven city and property data company in Malaysia, has closed its pre-Series A round of US$2 million led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered startup will use the money to develop intelligent data products and platforms to serve end consumers in the property and mortgage markets. A portion of the capital will be used to build out its product, technology, data, and business development teams, as per a press note.

Urbanmetry is a property data company that harvests, cleans, and analyses large amounts of city data through artificial intelligence and proprietary algorithms to extract trends and patterns in the built environment.

It offers this data to public and private sectors to create a more efficient and transparent property market, improve city planning, and shape a sustainable urban environment.

Also Read: Monk’s Hill Ventures head of talent’s guide to startup jobs search in Singapore

“For years, our engineers have been building in-house AI and data-powered solutions to help banks, government, and property developers better quantify risks and opportunities in the real estate market. However, the data gap is detrimental to both key industry players and individual homeowners alike. In the future, our team plans to push the technological envelope further to better fund homeowners and build sustainable cities for our shared future,” said Urbanmetry CEO and Founder Koh Cha-Ly.

Urbanmetry boasts over 150 corporate clients in the region, including UEM Sunrise, Kuok Group, RHB Bank, and the World Bank. Clients partner with Urbanmetry to conduct their due diligence and analysis of the housing and property market before making multimillion-dollar investment decisions.

In addition to providing data and insight to institutional clients, Urbanmetry also offers products for the homeowner. To assist homebuyers in making their mortgage commitment, Urbanmetry has launched Nowcast. This AI-driven service helps homebuyers forecast the value of their homes based on machine learning from 90 city data variables. Nowcast reports are available through banks in Malaysia to mortgage applicants today.

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Machine learning (ML) is still quite an unknown to some of us, even though most of us have benefitted from it daily, especially if you are reading this article from your devices.

However, computer engineers (myself included) are not the best at explaining. Here is my attempt to break down how ML impacts us in our daily lives from Google Research 2021 blog.

More tasks can be automated better

The tasks that we do usually have a combination of text, voice, images and videos as inputs. We, as humans, take those inputs and process them based on what we are trained to do, and as a result, produce outputs.

For example, my husband was nagging me to order food for my cat (Lady Meow Meow), as her food was running out. With technology, my husband’s voice can be converted to be sent directly to our supplier. Or even better, the image of the cat food pack looks low in stock, and the order goes out automatically.

Tasks/computation can be done quicker

Advancements are made in both hardware and software to make the tedious computation work more efficient. (I am personally most excited about this, as it was my previous research area, but it is the most un-sexy trend for most.)

Also Read: How voice AI is revolutionising the fintech scene

Technology can help us live better

Our devices can help us take better pictures and videos, have clearer communication, write better and even drive more safely. There are also other interesting applications like your ML agents waiting on hold for you or screening calls automatically.

Good news for the poor photographers among us! ML can help rectify blurry pictures and safe-keep wonderful moments with loved ones. Of course, this is just one of the many applications.

The advances in computer vision help us forecast weather more accurately and provide a rapid damage assessment after natural disasters.

From the health perspective, ML can not only see the hidden characteristics of genomics data, it can also assist with diagnosis.

By optimising routing through Google maps, we can reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Build inclusive and unbiased societies

Existing ML models can be biased towards male and Western demographics because of the data that these models are trained with. This is the same problem that many medical studies face — and biases in the medical field can lead to misdiagnosis.

I hope these are helpful for you! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

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Arkray’s Kyoto office

Arkray,  a Japanese company developing products that focus on diabetes testing and urinalysis, has launched a corporate venture capital (CVC) business through an affiliate in Singapore.

Named Arkray 4U, the JPY10 billion (US$87 million) fund aims to support startups in the healthcare and related sectors in Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Israel. Its goal is to invest in and support healthcare startups that can utilise the parent company’s assets/resources to scale and grow.

“We will invest in what we term the broader healthcare sector. For example, digital healthcare, medtech, biotech, AI, IoT medical devices, cloud pharmacies, medical diagnostics, personal wellness & self-care, pet-tech, medical and functional foodtech. Granted, functional foodtech is not exactly healthcare. Still, there is some relevance due to the close correlation between food and health,” according to Wei Cong SEAH, Senior Investment Associate (CVC) at Arkray.

The fund doesn’t have a minimum cheque size but it may invest up to JPY 300 million (US$2.6M) per company. It anticipates investing in a “fair number” of startups and is already conducting due diligence with a few.

Also Read: Is blockchain the future of medicine in creating a more secure healthcare?

Arkray 4U will provide extensive support for the growth of innovative businesses and technologies through tangible and intangible business assets owned by the Arkray Group worldwide. It uses global business assets to support startup companies’ rapid growth and accelerate their services through tangible and intangible business assets owned by the group worldwide.

According to the healthcare company, technological innovation is accelerating in the medical industry with the introduction of new testing methods and improved convenience using AI and digitisation. However, many startups seeking to develop innovative technologies and services must select and concentrate management resources for various reasons.

Arkray is a diabetes testing company that developed a “simple” glucose meter in 1970. Since then, it has provided diabetes treatment and guidance and improved patients’ QOL by developing a device that automates the measurement of HbA1c (haemoglobin A1c). The firm has 46 offices in 18 countries around the world, providing products to more than 80 countries and regions.

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PayMongo Co-Founders

Philippine fintech and online payments company PayMongo has secured US$31 million in a Series B round of financing from investors, including JAM Fund (founded by Tinder founder Justin Mateen) and local VCs ICCP-SBI Venture Partners and Kaya Founders.

Existing investors Global Founders Capital and SOMA Capital also co-invested in the round, alongside angels including founders of European fintech unicorns and startups Qonto, Viva Wallet, Billie and Scalable.

​​PayMongo will scale its operations with this capital by strengthening the current payments infrastructure and venturing into more financial services, such as disbursements, capital lending, ‘buy now pay later’, subscriptions, and recurring payments.

Using the Philippines as a springboard, the fintech startup also looks to explore opportunities in the digital transformation of financial services in other emerging markets, noted in the official statement.

“While payment acceptance is crucial, it is just one of the many services that entrepreneurs need to build a successful online business,” PayMongo Founder and CEO Francis Plaza. “Our goal is to create a one-stop-shop for all these financial needs in the broader Southeast Asian region, starting with the Philippines.”

Also read: 2022: Making the year of the tiger a roaring success for payments

The round comes a year and a half after PayMongo raised US$12 million Series A led by Stripe in 2020. The firm earlier raised US$2.7 million seed round from investors, including Y Combinator.

Founded in 2019 by Plaza, Luis Sia (CPO), Jaime Hing (CTO) and Edwin Lacierda (COO), PayMongo empowers online businesses to accept the full range of payment options, including credit cards, e-wallets, and over-the-counter payments. It provides an easy-to-integrate PayMongo API and e-commerce plugins. 

In addition, PayMongo Links and Pages products enable businesses to provide a simple digital checkout for their customers, even without a website.

Though the startup caters to businesses of all sizes, it emphasizes underserved small (and micro) and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (account for 99 per cent of businesses in the Philippines).

Since closing Series A, PayMongo claims to have achieved 3x growth in merchant base and a 4x growth in monthly transaction volumes.

According to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, the Philippine digital economy is slated to grow to US$40 billion by 2025, having registered the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia throughout the pandemic. The growth has been fueled by the wide adoption of digital products and services driven by the e-commerce boom in the country.

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Image Credit: PayMongo

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The Farquhar team

Hong Kong-based StockViva, an online platform to connect retail investors with the key opinion leaders in the industry, has received US$3 million in additional funding to close the ongoing Series A round at US$5 million.

The new tranche came from Farquhar VC (Singapore), Kharis Capital (Luxembourg), Hong Huan Group, Angelhub, and individual investors from Hong Kong.

StockViva previously raised US$2 million from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, K3 Ventures, and individual investors across Asia.

Launched in 2018, StockViva has developed a mobile app to provide real-time online education services to individual investors by financial KOLs. In addition, it connects retail investors with different financial institutions in Asia, covering a wide range of financial products such as US, Hong Kong and Taiwan stocks, along with FX and derivatives.

Also Read: How to smartly balance crypto investments with stocks

It has built a community of retail investors and financial KOLs. While retail investors gain knowledge from the financial KOLs, the latter build their fan base and reputation in Asia.

StockViva further leverages its own technology to build its real-time data streaming platform that captures and aggregates investment insights from stock markets and sentiment data in its social community.

StockViva has adopted a scientific and data-driven approach to run its operations to grow its business quickly. The firm startup has operations in China, Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, StockViva claims to have achieved over 122 per cent revenue growth and 932 per cent growth in trading volume in 2021.

“If you read a financial newspaper in the morning, it doesn’t help you make any investment decisions in the afternoon, as the market has already changed and the information is outdated,” says Samuel Wan, Co-Founder and Chairman of StockViva. “Financial education and analysis have to be in real-time. This is the reason why we built a technology platform where retail investors will be able to find an appropriate financial KOL online for real-time education and analysis during trading hours.”

According to the annual reports published by various stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, the total number of retail investors is growing. Between 2014 and 2020, the total number of retail investors is growing at an average rate of 21 per cent annually, reaching over 27 million in 2020. The total number of retail investors is expected to further grow to 42 million in 2030. If we further consider other parts of Asia, retail investors will be over 100 million.
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We are witnessing the unique indigenous cultures, mother tongue, paintings that represent life, traditional arts and crafts, ancient songs and stories, and so on are disappearing. Have you ever wondered whether there is any way that we can save and keep those invaluable cultures?

What if there is a way we could save these valuable indigenous cultures and art forms and lead them to advance into the technological world? Perhaps the blockchain and NFTs technologies are the answer, making it easier for us to spread and inherit the legacy.

What is a blockchain? Why is blockchain an excellent channel to preserve culture?

Blockchain is a technology that realises trust decentralisation through a consensus algorithm. You have the power to control your asset; there is no third party to restrict you from using them.

The data stored on the blockchain is permanent and transparent; you can verify or check it at any time, no one can tamper with the data.

Also, decentralising the authentication process into an open ledger (blockchain) means that people can trust strangers to buy and sell assets. The value is no longer based on individual sales but on the art itself.

What is NFT?

NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. It allows us to tokenise anything from art collectibles to real estate.

It is secured on the blockchain— meaning no one can modify ownership records or copy/paste new NFTs.

Also Read: The art of blockchain: What is the NFT craze all about?

Traditionally it can be challenging to verify the original provenance in the art market; the beauty of NFTs is that no matter how many times the art has been traded, you can still trace the original creator.

Use NFTs to preserve the indigenous culture

• Allowing collectors to join special traditional celebrations
• Meeting the creators
• The digital ID of physical artwork
• Unique event access
• Service through the integration of virtual and real

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BerryBenka Founder Jason Lamuda has launched Grow Commerce

Carsome completes acquisition of ASX-listed content automotive platform iCar Asia
Carsome and iCar Asia will expand a suite of digital products and services that enable an end-to-end, super-app experience for more used car dealers and consumers; Carsome has bought 19.9% of AX-listed iCar Asia for US$200M in July 2021.

How Carb0n.fi aims to establish a carbon-zero world for the people by the people
Carb0n.fi builds an online platform to allow people to put their crypto-assets to work and get rewarded with carbon offset NFTs and its native $ZRO token.

Berrybenka’s Jason Lamuda launches Grow Commerce, raises US$7M seed funding
Investors include AC Ventures, East Ventures and Irongrey; Grow Commerce is an online-first house of brands or brand aggregator focusing on acquiring Southeast Asian DTC and marketplace brands.

AI-powered food fingerprint platform ProfilePrint closes Series A
Investors include Louis Dreyfus Company, ofi, Sucafina, Greenwillow Capital, and Real Tech Global; Instead of packaging labels, reports or QR codes, ProfilePrint analyses the samples directly at the molecular level and can be used by stakeholders in the supply chain

Cyber Sierra raises US$4.3M seed funding
Investors include Leo Capital, AppWorks, Credit Saison, and angels; Cyber Sierra offers cyber risk, compliance and insurance products; It delivers cybersecurity and technology insurance offerings to SMEs with a presence on the cloud.

Animoca Brands, Brinc launch new US$30M startup programme P2E startups
New Guild Accelerator aims to enable millions of people around the world to generate income by participating in P2E gaming via crypto gaming guilds; It will invest up to US$500K each in startups.

Digital freight forwarder Andalin raises US$4M
Investors include Intudo Ventures, Cardig Group, Beenext, and strategic investors; The startup also plans to create an end-to-end one-stop solution for international trade activity by providing additional services such as trade financing, cargo insurance, and a SaaS-based freight management system.

GoZayaan enters Pakistan with FindMyAdventure acquisition
GoZayaan is an OTA booking solution for flight, hotel, inter-city bus and tour booking; Focused on Bangaldesh, GoZayaan is backed by Nordstar Partners, Wavemaker Partners, Ratio Ventures, and 1982 Ventures.

SaaS platform BiteSpeed raises US$1.9M seed funding
Investors are Sequoia Surge, First Cheque, Whiteboard Capital and angels; It builds a conversational commerce stack for D2C brands; It enables online brands to interact with their customers and sell their products on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

SG
Digital wallet HolyWally raises US$1.4M in funding
Investors include M-Daq, Finmirai, and Creitive; HolyWally is a white-label solution that offers digital wallets for banks, fintech firms, and retailers; It has a no-code approach to building wallets.

Monk’s Hill Ventures names Susli Lie as new partner
She is set to build the firm’s business in Indonesia, spearhead its Environmental, Social, and Governance programme, and support the VC’s portfolio companies on the ground; Previously, she co-founded education financing firm ErudiFi.

PasarPolis names former Amazon, Expedia exec as CTO
Kumar was a software development manager at Amazon and Expedia before joining PasarPolis. He also led the engineering team of Indian online travel firm MakeMyTrip.

AC Ventures appoints ex-GGV Capital exec as venture partner
Before joining AC Ventures, Wong served as a partner in prominent VC firms such as GGV Capital and Qiming Venture Partners; She led investments in fintech firm Akulaku and hospitality startup RedDoorz.

Circles Life hires ex-GoBear exec as VP of growth
Nelson Allen was previously the chief growth officer at GoBear (acquired by Australian fintech firm Finder); He previously spent over 20 years in various roles at Expedia Group, Microsoft, and Samsung Electronics.

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