Temasek co-lead US$100M investment in US biotech startup Pivot Bio

Temasek and Breakthrough Energy Ventures have co-lead a US$100 million Series C funding round in US-based biotech fertiliser startup Pivot Bio, Dealstreet Asia reported.

The funding round also included the participation of DCVC, Prelude Ventures, Spruce Capital Partners, Codon Capital, Bunge Ventures, Continental Grain Co., Tekfen Ventures and Pavilion Capital. It also included individual investors Alan Cohen and Roger Underwood.

The startup said in a statement that the funding is meant to scale its microbial nitrogen technology which aims to increase crop yields while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

GoBear co-founder joins Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered today announced the appointment of Marnix Zwart as Global Head, Partnerships of its Retail Banking division, effective immediately.

Zwart is known as the co-founder of financial comparison site GoBear in which he had held the position of Chief Commercial Officer. He was previously Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Kroodle in the Netherlands.

Zwart will be based in Singapore and reports to Aalishaan Zaidi, Global Head, Client Experience, Channels and Digital Banking.

Also Read: News Roundup: Novade raises Series B funding; Temasek JV invests in UK startup

Tokopedia probes alleged user data leaks

Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia announced that it is investigating the attempted hack and data breach of its users, a spokesperson told The Straits Times on Saturday.

The statement followed the publication of a Twitter post on Saturday by data breach monitoring firm Under the Breach that shows screenshots from an unnamed individual who claimed that he had acquired personal details of Tokopedia users through a hack in March.

Survey: Remote learning in Indonesia hampered by lack of student-teacher engagement

In a recent survey, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) revealed that students in the country have complained about a lack of engagement from their teachers after classes were forced migrate online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jakarta Post reported.

Conducted between April 13 and 21 with 1,700 students and 602 teachers in 54 cities and regencies involved, the survey results stated that 79 per cent of students reported little to no interaction with their teachers in the virtual classrooms. They explained further that the teachers only used the platform to assign homework.

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