The company says it has no assets to clear its accounts with creditors and users

Ofo can’t pay its debts, but says it is confident of a comeback [KrAsia]

After abandoning its overseas operations, Ofo just refuses to die.

After a Tianjin court ruled that Ofo is unable to repay RMB 250 million (US$36 million) in debt to a bike manufacturer, revealing that the company has “no assets” to clear its accounts with creditors and users, the company told local newspaper Beijing Business Today that it respects the ruling and that it is still going all out to generate revenue and return users’ deposits.

This means that Ofo, which was once valued at north of US$2 billion, has no property or land usage rights, no investments that can be liquidated, and no vehicles. The court added that Ofo’s bank accounts were either already frozen by other courts or didn’t have a positive balance.

MDEC launches comeback career programme for more women to join cybersecurity sector [The Star]

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) wants more women to become a part of the cybersecurity workforce, by encouraging them to apply for the new Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management Programme.

MDEC chief executive officer Surina Shukri described the pioneer programme as an important step towards building a highly-valued workforce with critical skills.

“This programme will empower women to develop the skills needed for jobs with high-demand in the era of Industry 4.0,” she said.

Women, Family and Community Development deputy minister Hannah Yeoh at the launch said the programme is “timely”.

AI mental health startup Wysa raises Rs 15 crores in pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures [press release]

Wysa, an AI conversational agent which aims to help improve mental health, announced that it has raised about US$2M in a pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures, with participation from Kae Capital and other investors.

Wysa has raised an earlier round of US$1.3 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and angel investors in 2017.

The company plans to use fresh funding to further strengthen their technology and for expansion.

Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati three years ago, Wysa is an AI-based ‘emotionally intelligent’ bot, a virtual coach that combines empathetic listening with evidence-based therapeutic techniques like CBT, meditation and motivational interviewing, to make mental health accessible at scale.

Wysa has helped over 1.2 million people from 30-plus countries.

Oculo and plano partner to protect children’s eyesight [press release]

Oculo and plano have announced a new partnership designed to combat the growing global myopia epidemic.

The plano app provides a suite of child safety functions, while using science-based features to help modify behaviour in children to reduce myopia related risk factors and empower healthier device usage. plano users (families with children aged 2 to 16 years) will have access to the extensive Oculo network to make the process of finding and booking optometry appointments easy.

“plano empowers parents to work with their children to develop healthy screen habits – and this includes regular and timely comprehensive eye check-ups. As part of plano’s inbuilt eye referral system, users will get reminders when their children are due for an optometry review and can seamlessly find an optometrist in the Oculo network for care,” said plano Founder and CEO, Dr Mo Dirani.

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