Global “Knowledge-as-a-Service” platform Lynk announces successful funding round- Press release
Lynk, that spearheaded the “Knowledge-as-a-Service” (KaaS) sector, announced the close of a funding round led by Singapore-based MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia (MMV SEA). Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and Wavemaker Partners, who led the seed round, also participated.
Lynk allows customers to access expertise and insights from advisors to innovate, enter new markets, and quickly understand business risk and evaluate opportunities. Unlike other expert access products, Lynk is focused on its KaaS technology platform that utilizes natural language processing, conversational AI analytics, and machine learning with human-in-the-loop to enable expert knowledge acquisition and sharing at scale.
Anvesh Ramineni, Managing Director at MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia said, “Lynk’s unparalleled growth and proprietary approach to harness unstructured data in building out a platform that can enable a wide range of potential applications made it an obvious choice for us. We look forward to supporting the company’s expansive growth across various regions of the world.”
Indian insurtech startup Acko raises funds from Ascent Capital- DealStreetAsia
Insurance tech startup Acko General Insurance has raised US$16 million in fresh funding from growth capital provider Ascent Capital, according to the company’s filings with the registrar of companies (RoC), said a report by DealStreetAsia.
Founded by Coverfox co-founder Varun Dua in 2016, Acko offers general insurance products, including auto, smartphone, and travel insurance. The startup has built a diverse base of partnerships with consumer internet platforms across e-commerce and travel categories, besides auto manufacturers, to expand its customer base. Acko has a tie-up with cab-hailer Ola and other online travel aggregator platforms, such as RedBus and Goibibo, for offering online travel insurance. It has around 45 million registered customers and around 20 digital partners, including travel, cab-hailing, and e-commerce platforms.
The Mumbai-based insure-tech startup had earlier raised money from Binny Bansal, SoftBank’s Kabir Mishra, Amazon Inc., Accel Partners and Infosys founders Narayana Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan.
In March, it had secured a US$65-million Series C round led by Bansal. In May 2018, Acko had secured a US$12 million round led by Amazon India and Ashish Dhawan, founder of homegrown private equity fund ChrysCapital. In 2017, it had raised US$30 million in seed money from Accel Partners and SAIF Partners, among others. To date, it has raised over US$100 million.
Facebook caught in the crossfire of Singapore’s ‘fake news’ law- Bloomberg
The Singaporean government on Friday invoked its recently enacted “fake news” law, this time ordering Facebook Inc. to publish a correction notice on a post made by an anti-government blog, according to a news article by Bloomberg.
In the third such order in a week, an arm of the Ministry of Communications and Information instructed Facebook to correct a States Times Review post accused of using falsehoods to criticize the ruling People’s Action Party. The government had previously denounced the report that police had arrested a government whistle-blower and taken down information that exposed a plot to turn the affluent city into a Christian state.
Also read: The world should wish the Singapore fake news law is Fake News
Singapore introduced its controversial fake-news law as it prepares to hold general elections by April 2021, though the ruling party has called for early polls in recent cycles. Officials, including Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, have openly questioned the ability of internet companies to handle widespread misinformation — a growing scourge of elections around the world. But critics worry the new legislation can be used to clamp down on free speech. A Facebook representative acknowledged it has received the government request but declined further comment.
Ola may lay off 225 employees as SoftBank-backed firm gears up for IPO- Reuters
Softbank-backed Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, aims to begin the IPO process by the end of March 2021 and plans to cut its 4,500-strong workforce by up to 5% or 225 heads as part of preparations, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The news comes as tech investor SoftBank smarts from the abandoned share sale of major portfolio firm WeWork, as well as its first quarterly loss in 14 years after an $8.9 billion hit to its Vision Fund, through which it is Ola’s top stakeholder.
Ola, officially ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, is India’s home-grown rival to US peer and fellow SoftBank portfolio firm Uber Technologies Inc. Local media have previously reported Ola was targeting an initial public offering (IPO).
As part of that effort, Ola has engaged McKinsey & Company and EY as consultants said the executive. At the same time, Ola plans to reduce its 4,500-strong permanent workforce by 4% to 5%, said another person.
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