Emma Jenkins-Lee Designated Spurwing Communications Managing Director

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 -- Spurwing Communications, an award-winning leader in strategic healthcare communications, has strengthened its team with the appointment of Emma Jenkins-Lee to its newly created role of Managing Director.

In her new role, Jenkins-Lee will spearhead Spurwing’s next phase of growth, drive client relationships and lead the team to consistently deliver communication campaigns that drive positive change and have tangible business impact.

Based on a statement, she will work closely with Spurwing founder and CEO, Emma Thompson, to shape the business.

On the appointment, Thompson commented: “I am thrilled to welcome someone of Emma’s calibre to the team. She brings solid communications counsel and experience evident through her impressive client tenure track record and the agency growth she has delivered in the region over the past decade.

“The breadth and depth of the work Emma has done in the technology sector, and many others, will be invaluable to strengthening our offering, leading our team of integrated experts and taking the business to the next level. We’re hugely excited to benefit from her expertise and fresh perspective as we prioritise growth in 2022 and beyond.”

Spurwing delivers strategic communications programmes for clients in the healthcare, nutrition and food sectors and has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2015. From its headquarters in Singapore, and through its Global Health PR network, the team of 15 applies its specialist industry expertise to strategic corporate communications, medical communications and creative briefs.

“I wanted my next role to be something different, and the chance to lead an agency like Spurwing, which was seeking fresh thinking and operational expertise, is a brilliant, new opportunity for me. The agency’s journey so far is impressive and its mission is clear – to help clients motivate the people that matter.

“Spurwing has a great client roster that includes some of the most innovative healthcare and agribusinesses in Asia Pacific and the team is delivering fantastic campaigns that are truly inspiring change,” said Jenkins-Lee who was previously Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific at LEWIS, where she was responsible for the strategic development and growth of the region.

She has extensive communications experience in the Asia Pacific region, advising senior level clients on briefs spanning Greater China, Southeast Asia and Australia.

-- BERNAMA

VTC Academy targets raising US$20 million for 5-year development plan

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 -- VTC Information Technology and Design Academy (VTC Academy) has announced its business performance for three years after securing funding of US$3 million from Vietnam Investment Group (VIG). (US$1 = RM4.197)

In addition, VTC Academy revealed aiming to raise US$20 million for its next five-year development plan, according to a statement.

VTC Academy Chairman Hoang Viet Tung said: “According to the next five-year business plan, with a targeted fund of US$20 million, VTC Academy plans to provide high-quality educational opportunities for all students across the country by developing the digital academic ecosystem and expanding new branches.

“Our major goal is to develop a student-centred academic ecosystem that includes an online career orientation library 4.0, an E-learning platform, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system, and a centralised data platform to engage students throughout the learning process, as well as a recruitment platform that connects enterprises and high-quality human resources in Vietnam.”

During the previous three years, VTC Academy received full support from VIG for the establishment of three branches in the two most dynamic cities in Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. VTC Academy has mainly focused on building a high-quality professional team that develops various academic programmes, according to the strictest recruiting standards.

Therefore, those professionals play a critical role in R&D and are one of the key pillars at VTC Academy. In addition, a large international education partner network has differentiated VTC Academy from other institutions in Vietnam, resulting in its superior academic standards and the reputation.

For the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic adversely impacted most of the service companies and educational organisations in Vietnam, with several even having to shut down or go bankrupt.

However, VTC Academy proved its agility, adaptability, flexibility, and capacity by consistently coming up with innovative solutions, resulting in revenue and enrolment growth of up to 200 per cent each year over the previous three years.

-- BERNAMA

GLOBAL PAYMENTS PROVIDER BLACKHAWK NETWORK PURCHASES MINORITY STAKE IN SINGAPORE-BASED REWARDS AND INCENTIVES COMPANY, WOGI

 Agreement will expand access to digital-first rewards, incentives and gift card content to select Southeast Asia markets


SINGAPORE, Jan 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- As part of its mission to offer meaningful rewards on a global scale, Blackhawk Network has purchased a minority stake in Singapore-based rewards and incentives company, Wogi. The collaboration will accelerate the growth of rewards and incentives throughout Southeast Asia and provide solutions to the APAC businesses that are revisiting their rewards strategies as a result of the pandemic.

With Blackhawk’s investment, Wogi will now be able to offer a wider selection of gift card rewards, which have shown to be effective incentives for driving loyalty and motivation among shoppers and employees alike¹.

“This investment will provide Blackhawk with greater access to digital-first rewards, incentives, and gift card content in the APAC regions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, and provide Wogi with a more robust corporate framework benefiting from Blackhawk’s vast gift card network and solutions,” said Mark Singer, managing director of Asia Pacific, Blackhawk Network. “Digital rewards are highly popular in the APAC region, and there are numerous applications for organizations to leverage these rewards. For instance, businesses can leverage smart rewards and incentives to help boost topline revenue and streamline business processes by building engagement and boosting employee, partner and customer satisfaction.”

To date, Wogi powers rewards for more than 300 B2B and B2C companies with more than 700 gift card content and payment partners. By joining forces with Blackhawk, Wogi’s clients in APAC markets will have access to an even larger rewards portfolio — including original gift card content personalized for individual recipients — via its smooth CONNECT API and digital integration technology for seamless ordering, processing and delivery.

“With Blackhawk’s backing, we will have the opportunity to expand our offerings and seek out growth opportunities for our business and our clients’ businesses,” said Pavlina Atanasov, Wogi Founder and Senior Vice President. “Robust, modern reward programs can create significant competitive differentiation for organizations jockeying for valuable market share and by expanding our capabilities, we will help our partners — and our company — tap into the latest and greatest reward options.”

Visit www.wogi.biz for more information about Wogi’s enterprise solutions and digital products capabilities.

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk Network delivers branded payment solutions through the prepaid products, technologies and network that connect brands and people. We collaborate with our partners to innovate, translating market trends in branded payments to increase reach, loyalty and revenue. We reliably execute security-minded solutions worldwide. Join us as we shape the future of global branded payments. Learn more at www.blackhawknetwork.com.

About Wogi

Wogi empowers success by creating incentive driven behavior. We are a digital provider of rewards as a service, enabling rewards, loyalty & incentive programs in real-time for customers, employees, or channel partners via cashless payment products. The company offers a rich content portfolio of cashless products tapping into a digital (eco)system which connects consumer brands, local enterprises and end consumers. The company was founded in 2015. Learn more at www.wogi.biz.

¹ “BrandedPay: How People and Brands Connect Through Payments” is based on the findings of an internet-based survey conducted by Leger on behalf of Blackhawk Network between February 12–March 17, 2020. The sample size included over 12,000 respondents in eight countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220130005002/en/

Contact

Ashley Jackson
The Fletcher Group
1.719.332.3495
ashley@fletchergroupllc.com

Source : Blackhawk Network

KLDISCOVERY INTRODUCES NEBULA SINGULARITY™ GLOBAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

MCLEAN, Va., Jan 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- KLDiscovery Inc. ("KLDiscovery", “KLD” or the “Company”), a leading provider of global electronic discovery, information governance and data recovery technology solutions, announced the launch of Nebula Singularity, its premier subscription service that was designed to benefit corporations seeking to globalize and standardize their eDiscovery processes.

Nebula Singularity is a simple, one-touch licensing option that provides customers with the power of Nebula’s flexible deployment models and workflow accelerators, anywhere they need it. Each Singularity subscription includes a Nebula Enterprise™ appliance for installation in the customer's data center, additional hosted subscription capacity in any of Nebula's worldwide SaaS deployments, on-demand Nebula Portable™ units, as well as access to KLD Client Portal, ReadySuite™, and more. Singularity allows for unparalleled functionality, global reach, and complete operational flexibility on a single unified platform for a simple, predictable price - all backed by KLDiscovery's incomparable customer service.

"Other offerings in the market today constrain customer choice in one or more ways, with limitations on geographic reach, delivery models, or functionality, or they force customers into complicated pricing schemes that make it difficult to assess true value. Singularity overcomes all of these," said Christopher Weiler, CEO of KLDiscovery Inc. "A technological singularity is a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. With Nebula Singularity, KLDiscovery has created an eDiscovery and complex data solutions model that cannot be replicated by our competition."

About KLDiscovery

KLDiscovery provides technology solutions to help law firms, corporations and consumers solve complex data challenges. The company has 32 locations, 9 data centers and 17 data recovery labs across 19 countries and is a global leader in delivering best-in-class eDiscovery, information governance and data recovery solutions to support the litigation, regulatory compliance, internal investigation and data recovery and management needs of our clients. Serving clients for over 30 years, KLDiscovery offers data collection and forensic investigation, early case assessment, electronic discovery and data processing, application software and data hosting for web-based document reviews, and managed document review services. In addition, through its global Ontrack Data Recovery business, KLDiscovery delivers world-class data recovery, email extraction and restoration, data destruction and tape management. KLDiscovery has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by both Inc. Magazine (Inc. 5000) and Deloitte (Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500) and CEO Chris Weiler was recognized as a 2014 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year™. Additionally, KLDiscovery is a Relativity Certified Partner and maintains ISO/IEC 27001 Certified data centers around the world. For more information, please email info@kldiscovery.com or visit www.kldiscovery.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220126006138/en/

Contact

Investor:
Dawn Wilson
703.520.1498
dawn.wilson@kldiscovery.com

Richard Simonelli
Simonelli Capital
202.450.9516
rsimonelli@simonellicapital.com

Media:
Krystina Jones
888.811.3789
krystina.jones@kldiscovery.com

Source : KLDiscovery Inc.

Tony Chan Carusone Is Alphawave Chief Technology Officer

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 -- Alphawave IP, a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world’s technology infrastructure, has announced Tony Chan Carusone as its Chief Technology Officer.

Carusone has over 20 years of experience in both academic research, focused on integrated circuit design and communication technology, and business consulting, advising some of the largest technology companies in the world on their semiconductor technology strategy.

“Tony is the perfect fit to lead our technology strategy and accelerate product innovation as we solidify our market ​​leadership with our best-in-class connectivity solutions," said Alphawave CEO, president and co-founder, Tony Pialis in a statement.

"We have known each other since the early 2000s and he has been an adviser to Alphawave since 2021. He brings a tremendous amount of relevant industry experience as well as incredible academic expertise and achievements.

“His deep technical insight and knowledge will be critical in taking Alphawave’s solutions to the next level to continue to enable today’s – and tomorrow’s – most advanced technologies.”

Carusone, a faculty member at the University of Toronto since completing his Ph.D. there in 2002, has been teaching and researching a variety of areas in integrated circuits and systems, such as chip-to-chip communication, optical transceivers, analog-to-digital conversion, and precise clock generation.

He has also served on the editorial boards and technical program committees of multiple leading journals and conferences on integrated circuit design, is an IEEE Fellow, and co-authored the most renowned textbooks in the field.

“Alphawave is fully aligned with my research of the last 20 years and it’s a natural fit for me to apply my expertise to solve some of the greatest challenges of semiconductors. I have known the founding team for decades and have been proud to be an advisor to the company since last year.

-- BERNAMA

ADAGENE: FIRST PATIENT DOSED WITH ANTI-CD137 AGONIST, ADG106, ANTI-CTLA-4 MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY, ADG116

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Adagene Inc (Adagene), a company transforming the discovery and development of novel antibody-based therapies, announced the first patient has been dosed in a combination cohort of its anti-CD137 agonist, ADG106, with its anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody (mAb), ADG116, in patients with advanced/metastatic solid tumours.

The dose escalation cohort will evaluate the safety and tolerability of this novel, proprietary combination in patients with advanced/metastatic solid tumours.

“Published research in preclinical models underscores the potential synergistic effect of combining these two potent pathways. We are proud to pioneer exploration of this novel combination, which also demonstrates the translational power of our NEObody™ platform — targeting unique epitopes with novel mechanisms of action by species cross reactive antibodies that can move directly from preclinical syngeneic mouse models to clinical studies,” said Peter Luo, Ph.D., Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Adagene in a statement.

“This innovative clinical research will establish the safety and potential complementary effects of ADG106 and ADG116 against two challenging but orthogonal pathways for T-cell priming by anti-CTLA-4 and proliferation by anti-CD137, respectively, building on the promising preclinical and clinical data on safety and preliminary efficacy from our global trials.

“This pursuit aligns with our goal to transform the development paradigm of antibody-based immunotherapies for global cancer care.”

Anthony W. Tolcher, M.D., FRCPC, FACP, co-founder of NEXT Oncology™ and study investigator said: “Existing cancer therapies that target CD137 and CTLA-4 are associated with safety concerns, creating a significant unmet need and high threshold for agents that are both safe and potent.

“With ADG106 and ADG116, we now have two promising agents to test the therapeutic potential of these two potent pathways together to safely inhibit tumour growth.”

As single agents, both ADG106 and ADG116 have demonstrated robust safety profiles and early signals of efficacy.

For more information, visit: https://investor.adagene.com.

-- BERNAMA

MEIJI YASUDA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY CREDIT RATINGS AFFIRMED - AM BEST

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of ‘aa-’ (Superior) of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company (Meiji Yasuda) (Japan), with the outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) being stable.

According to a statement, the ratings reflect Meiji Yasuda’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, favourable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

Meiji Yasuda’s balance sheet strength assessment mainly reflects its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR).

This assessment is also supported by the company’s low financial leverage, with an adjusted debt leverage ratio that is well below 25 per cent. The use of sophisticated and transparent economic-based indicators, including the economic solvency ratio and group surplus results, also allows the company to evaluate its risk-taking activities and capital on a timely basis.

Meiji Yasuda’s operating performance has been strong and consistent, supported by a stable premium income and base profit with low volatility in the past. For fiscal-year 2020 (FY2020), the company recorded a stable base profit of JPY 580 billion (US$5.5 billion) amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While the company’s new sales performance was adversely affected by the sales activities restriction in the first half of FY2020, its annualised premiums from new policies began to recover starting in the second half of FY2020. (US$1 = RM4.197)

A leading life insurance company in Japan, Meiji Yasuda continues maintaining a strong and effective agency channel and aims to diversify its distribution channels further to achieve revenue growth and strengthen profitability in its domestic market.

Its solid business relationships with regional government offices and private corporations continue to support its position as a market leader in group insurance business, and have modest geographical diversification with operations in the United States and other Asian countries.

The stable outlooks reflect the expectation that Meiji Yasuda will maintain its overall balance sheet strength, supported by risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by BCAR.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

KLDISCOVERY LAUNCHES NEBULA ENTERPRISE™ SERVER-RACK APPLIANCE

 

MCLEAN, Va., Jan 28 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- KLDiscovery Inc. (“KLDiscovery”, “KLD” or the “Company”), a leading provider of global electronic discovery, information governance and data recovery technology solutions, announced that it is launching a new Nebula Enterprise product line to accommodate its clients’ and partners’ geographic and data control needs.

Nebula Enterprise brings the power, flexibility, and enhanced feature set of Nebula® to customers’ data centers in a plug-and-play expandable appliance designed to address a myriad of security and compliance considerations. Nebula Enterprise models are available in a wide range of capacities, addressing a wide range of use cases. For example, five terabyte units are ideal for corporations or law firms seeking a small scale, low maintenance, in-house eDiscovery capability, while capacities up to 100 terabytes can make up a large eDiscovery vendor’s entire technology stack.

“Widespread public cloud adoption among eDiscovery software providers has effectively limited the choices available to customers who have unique geographic, security, or other business constraints. Meanwhile, many eDiscovery software providers have made architectural decisions that effectively lock them and their customers into the public cloud,” said Christopher Weiler, CEO of KLDiscovery Inc. “We believe the market is best served by maximizing flexibility in deployment models for our clients and partners. With Nebula Enterprise, we have chosen to serve those with unique requirements with the same high-performance, cutting-edge, eDiscovery platform available in the cloud, packaged as a high-availability, self-healing appliance.”

About KLDiscovery

KLDiscovery provides technology solutions to help law firms, corporations and consumers solve complex data challenges. The company has 32 locations, 9 data centers and 17 data recovery labs across 19 countries and is a global leader in delivering best-in-class eDiscovery, information governance and data recovery solutions to support the litigation, regulatory compliance, internal investigation and data recovery and management needs of our clients. Serving clients for over 30 years, KLDiscovery offers data collection and forensic investigation, early case assessment, electronic discovery and data processing, application software and data hosting for web-based document reviews, and managed document review services. In addition, through its global Ontrack Data Recovery business, KLDiscovery delivers world-class data recovery, email extraction and restoration, data destruction and tape management. KLDiscovery has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by both Inc. Magazine (Inc. 5000) and Deloitte (Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500) and CEO Chris Weiler was recognized as a 2014 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year™. Additionally, KLDiscovery is a Relativity Certified Partner and maintains ISO/IEC 27001 Certified data centers around the world. For more information, please email info@kldiscovery.com or visit www.kldiscovery.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220126006136/en/


Contact

Investor Contacts
Dawn Wilson
+1 703.520.1498
dawn.wilson@kldiscovery.com

Richard Simonelli
Simonelli Capital
+1 202.450.9516
rsimonelli@simonellicapital.com

Media Contact
Krystina Jones
+1 888.811.3789
krystina.jones@kldiscovery.com

Source : KLDiscovery Inc.

LIGHTCON LAUNCHES NFT PRESALE FOR ITS NEW GAME, RISE OF STARS (ROS)

^{Rise of Stars (ROS) launches NFT presale of Warship Carriers on January 27. Warship Carrier is an item providing various buff benefits to the warships and serves as the main axis in the ROS token ecosystem. The presale is held twice between January 27 and February 17 on WEMIX Auction. 1,504 NFT Warship Carrier lucky boxes will be sold at discounted prices on a first-come-first-served basis. (Graphic: Business Wire)}


• NFT presale for ROS’s item Warship Carriers starts on January 27
• 1,504 Warship Carrier NFT lucky boxes sold through WEMIX Auction
• 1.2 million Silthereum to be provided through airdrop event, etc.


SEONGNAM, South Korea, Jan 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rise of Stars (ROS), a new mobile game being developed by LightCON, a subsidiary of WEMADE MAX (Co-CEOs: Hyunguk Chang, Gilhyung Lee) (KOSDAQ: 101730), launches NFT presale of Warship Carriers on January 27.

 

ROS is the first 4x blockchain game to be released on the WEMIX platform. In addition to real-time massive warfare, this game, which is set on the vast universe, features elaborately designed warships and planets.

In particular, ROS provides Silthereum, a new game token, and the item ‘Warship Carrier’ to which NFT is applied. Prior to the official service, the NFT is presold.

Warship Carrier, which carries a large number of warships, is an item providing various buff benefits to the warships and serves as the main axis in the ROS token ecosystem. It offers a function to mine Silther Particles, which are exchanged for Silthereum, the game token. The higher the Warship Carrier tier is, the larger the amount of Silther Particle mining becomes.

The presale is held twice between January 27 and February 17 on WEMIX Auction. 1,504 NFT Warship Carrier lucky boxes will be sold at discounted prices on a first-come-first-served basis.

Through the first presale, 500 Tier-1 Warship Carrier lucky boxes and 252 Tier-2 Warship Carrier lucky boxes will be sold at 20% discounted prices from January 27 to February 3. During the second presale from February 10 to 17, the same amounts will be sold at 10% discounted prices.

To mark the first NFT presale of ROS, 1.2 million Silthereum tokens will be presented through an airdrop event. All NFT buyers will be presented with a total of 201,200 Silthereum tokens. In addition, 20,000 users who participate in the community event will be provided with 50 Silthereum tokens each by lot.

On the 12th, ROS opened the pre-registration on the Google Play and Apple App Store in global regions excluding Korea and China, etc. To celebrate the opening of global pre-registration, an airdrop event offering a total of one million Silthereum tokens is being held.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/52567077/en 

Contact

For LightCON
Wemade Co., Ltd.
Young Ahn
+82-2-3709-2065
ay2000@wemade.com

Source : LightCON Corp.

RONNIE SCREWVALA & INDU SHAHANI COME TOGETHER TO FORM INDIA'S PREMIER SKILLTECH UNIVERSITY - ATLAS

Stellar Advisory Board to power New Age Degrees & Careers for Jobs of the Future


HONG KONG, Jan 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Launched on Independence Day 15th August 2021 - and having had its first Advisory Board meeting on Republic day 26th January 2022 - ATLAS SkillTech University - Maharashtra’s first - is a new addition to the city of Mumbai, situated in the heart of the city’s commercial district, with a vision of global excellence.

Yesterday its Advisory Board met to spell out the vision, scale and ambition to make this a premier institution in India in the next 4 years. The Advisory Board is a who’s who of corporate and education leaders worldwide. Deepak Parikh (HDFC) as Chairman, Dr. Indu Shahani (Founding President ATLAS), Ronnie Screwvala & Mayank Kumar (upGrad), Ram Raghavan (Colgate), Keshav Murugesh (WNS), Karan Singh (Bain), Vivek Pandit (McKinsey), Jamil Khatri (KPMG), Anant Goenka (CEAT), Anjali Bansal (Avana), Aryaman Birla (Aditya Birla group), Sanjay Gurbaxani (Mondelez), Prof Russ Winter (NYU-Stern), Prof Tim Marshall (RMIT), & Carol Kim (Parsons).

Guided and buoyed by the National Education Policy - ATLAS has committed to creating a world-class outcome in curriculum, academic excellence, and experiential learning in five very critical and future-ready verticals namely: (A) Design & Creativity (B) Digital content & Gamification (C) Media & Communication (D) Digital Technology and Data (E) Management and Entrepreneurship. The founding batch which commenced in August last year has students from across 22 States - 50% of them came from Maharashtra. Applications for the year about to commence have seen a resounding interest and should cross 10,000 from which the batches will be shortlisted and selected. The generous ATLAS Scholarships Program will enable highly meritorious students from all walks of life to achieve their dreams.

To support this, ATLAS now has over 150 Faculty members that are slated to double over the next 18 months. Over 400 Education institutions and schools refer their students to ATLAS and no less than 250 corporates will come to Campus for placements, career options and other tie-ups.

upGrad has committed USD 20 Million in the first phase to build out ATLAS SkillTech University - a not-for-profit - and will continue to support its growth in the years to come.

“Our joint vision is to see ATLAS in the top 5 Universities in the country, a centre for global excellence and we are committed to build and to upskill our young adults for the careers of tomorrow as India heads into the Fourth Industrial Revolution - where innovation and creativity not labour arbitrage will be at the core,” said Ronnie Screwvala Co-founder and Chairperson of upGrad.

“The world of work has evolved dramatically, altering the prominence and hierarchy of education as well as skills, across the globe; calling for a highly agile and resilient workforce. Our unique model and industry integrated location will enable ATLAS to become a globally ranked urban innovation university bringing together renowned faculty, learning companies and talented students to deliver resilient education & transforming our students to responsible leaders of tomorrow,” says Dr. Indu Shahani, Founding President and Chancellor, ATLAS SkillTech University.

ATLAS has some of the most meaningful relationships with the world’s leading institutions - Parsons School of Design (NY), Vancouver Film School, London School of Economics (LSE), Kings College (UK) and University of Arts London, to name a few.

About upGrad:

upGrad - started in 2015 - is a pioneer in the online education revolution, focused on powering career success for a global workforce of over 1.3 billion. It is one of the few Integrated LifeLongLearning Tech Companies in the world - spanning the college learner to the working professional from the age group of 18-50 years and across Undergrad courses, Campus & JobLinked Programs, Studying Abroad, short form to executive programs to Degrees, Masters and Doctoral - with a learner base of over 2 million across 50 countries and over 300 Univ partners & a robust enterprise business with a client base of 1000 companies worldwide.

upGrad’s Global Learning Engine rests on four pillars - (a) its large repository of original & owned content and IP - (b) its own best-in-class proprietary tech platform - (c) its high touch human-led delivery service backed by coaches & mentors - and - (d) an 85% course completion track record, backed by a further 80% career outcomes guaranteed performance.

Already termed Asia’s higher EdTech leader it has offices in the UK, US, Middle East, India, Singapore & Vietnam and presence in many more countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/52568204/en 

Contact

upGrad | Neha Prasad | Asst. Manager – PR | neha.prasad@upgrad.com

Source : upGrad

SMARTSTREAM AIR UNVEILS ENHANCED AUTOMATION, EXCEPTIONS MANAGEMENT IN THE CLOUD

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- SmartStream Technologies, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM®) solutions provider, has announced SmartStream Air Version 6, its cloud-native AI data reconciliations solution now encompassing two new features.

The new features are enhanced exceptions management capabilities and attribute-by-attribute matching, according to a statement.

SmartStream Chief Information Officer, Andreas Burner said: “In this latest release, we recognised that organisations need to modernise their operational blueprint and use the latest AI technologies to evolve their data strategies to better support the changing business needs. 

“Many of the tier one buy-and sell-side firms we speak to, highlight the importance of being able to spot both data and reporting decision irregularities, in one control framework. Having better control of this allowed them to showcase to the regulators that they've taken all the necessary steps to ensure their data is both complete and accurate.”

The latest version provides users with increased automation of exception management in the cloud. SmartStream Air’s AI capabilities manage discrepancies during the reconciliations process by creating exception cases - where clients can track the status of exceptions, assign the cases to relevant teams or users, and add any supporting comments or attachments.

SmartStream Air Version 6 enables clients to validate data integrity across a huge number of fields, particularly for reference data, regulatory and intersystem reconciliations – this will help to build a strong data governance framework to ensure data quality, completeness and accuracy of reporting.

This new version will simplify the reporting process with higher levels of automation for attribute-by-attribute matching – allowing clients to check far greater data sets than seen before and validate data integrity across all shared fields providing accuracy.

More details at www.smartstream-stp.com.

-- BERNAMA

TOSHIBA LAUNCHES TWO SILICON CARBIDE MOSFET MODULES

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba) has launched two silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET Dual Modules: ‘MG600Q2YMS3’ with a voltage rating of 1200V and drain current rating of 600A; and ‘MG400V2YMS3’ with a voltage rating of 1700V and drain current rating of 400A.

The first Toshiba products with these voltage ratings, they join the previously released MG800FXF2YMS3 in a lineup of 1200V, 1700V and 3300V devices.

According to a statement, the new modules have mounting compatibility with widely used silicon (Si) IGBT modules.

Their low energy loss characteristics meet needs for higher efficiency and size reductions in industrial equipment, such as converters and inverters for railway vehicles, and renewable energy power generation systems.

With annual sales now surpassing 710-billion yen (US$6.5 billion), Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation looks forward to building and contributing to a better future for people everywhere. (US$1 = RM4.189)

More details at https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/top.html

-- BERNAMA

EcoVadis upgrades INNIO Jenbacher rating to Gold Medal for global sustainability commitment

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 -- INNIO announced that its Jenbacher business unit has been recognised by EcoVadis with a Gold Medal as part of its annual sustainability performance rating, placing INNIO Jenbacher in the top one per cent of industry peers evaluated by EcoVadis.

“As a global provider of sustainable energy solutions across the energy value chain, we focus on continuously improving our sustainability practices to ensure we reduce both our emission levels and our carbon footprint,” said INNIO president and chief executive officer, Olaf Berlien.

“We commit to critical voluntary leadership organisations, such as EcoVadis to ensure that our products, services, and operations pass stringent sustainability tests. Being upgraded to a Gold Medal rating in less than a year by EcoVadis validates that our sustainability strategy is working.”

EcoVadis awarded INNIO Jenbacher the upgrade from a Silver to a Gold Medal rating for its demonstrated improvements and contributions towards sustainable growth in the past year, according to a statement.

Performed annually, EcoVadis’ assessment focuses on 21 issues grouped into four key themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.

These criteria are based upon international sustainability standards, including the Global Compact Principles, the International Labour Organization conventions and the Global Reporting Initiative standard.

The upgrade to a Gold Medal rating reflects INNIO integrating and elevating sustainability efforts in 2021.

INNIO’s accomplishments include formalising commitment to Human Rights and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion through company guidelines and trainings; publishing inaugural Sustainability Report; and, implementing measures, guidelines, policies and initiatives to strengthen transparency and sustainable growth in INNIO’s supply chain.

More details at www.innio.com.

-- BERNAMA

VENDING MACHINES INTERNATIONAL SECURES SGD 135 MILLION CAPITAL COMMITMENT FROM GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS (GEM) AS COMPANY SEEKS TO GO PUBLIC

 

^{(Photo: Business Wire)}


The Company Seeks to Go Public in the coming year via Reverse Merger, or Traditional IPO on the Singapore Stock Exchange or The Australian Stock Exchange

SINGAPORE, Jan 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Vending Machines International (VMI), today announced a SGD 135 Million capital commitment from GEM Global Yield LLC SCS ("GGY"), the Luxembourg-based private alternative investment vehicle.

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Under the agreement, GGY will provide VMI with a Share Subscription Facility of up to SGD 135 million for a 36-month period following a public listing of VMI’s common stock. VMI will control the timing and maximum amount of drawdowns under this facility and has no minimum drawdown obligation.

“VMI is very pleased to be selected by the GEM Group to receive this investment. It is a credit to the GEM management that they very quickly grasped that the world is moving to remove single use plastics from the supply chain. VMI is extremely well placed to take advantage of this transition. With GEM’s funds to strengthen the VMI balance sheet VMI will be able to assist the beverage industry by offering a viable alternative to single use plastic bottles on a global scale. This funding will broaden our global reach and further enhance our research and development facilities as we continue to interact with the world’s largest beverage companies.”
Leicester Chatfield – Founder and CEO

About VMI

Vending Machines International Pte Ltd (VMI) is a Singapore-registered entity providing unique solutions in water distribution with zero plastic waste. Established in 2015, VMI has successfully developed its own water dispensing kiosk network in Australia designed to fully understand how to interact with their customers and to test the VMI technology. In the next stage of its development, VMI is pivoting to a highly scalable white-label and licensing strategy which is underpinned by strong interest from international FMCG brand owners.

Global FMCG companies have switched to other forms of packaging like tin cans, glass bottles, paper boxes, etc; however, these materials come with trade-offs. Mining aluminium, for example creates toxic waste. Glass bottles also have a carbon footprint from their energy-intensive production process, and their heavier weight means that they also create more emissions during transportation than plastic. Thus, refilling reusable bottles is the only low-impact option. It is time for the world to switch from “disposable” and “recyclable” to “reusable” solutions and VMI is very well placed to be a world leader in this endeavour.

VMI’s Head office is in Singapore. Thailand is the company’s base for manufacturing, our inhouse software development and a large, experienced research and development team.

VMI also has an operation in Australia focusing on the Australasian market. VMI also has a research and development team who have developed the world’s first water vending machine which never needs refilling as it extracts its water from the atmosphere.

About GEM

Global Emerging Markets (“GEM”) is a $3.4 billion, Luxembourg-based private alternative investment group with offices in Paris, New York and The Bahamas. GEM manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets and has completed over 480 transactions in over 70 countries. Each investment vehicle has a different degree of operational control, risk- adjusted return, and liquidity profile. The family of funds and investment vehicles provide GEM and its partners with exposure to: Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities and select venture investments. For more information: http://www.gemny.com

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Contact

VMI
Mr. Leicester Chatfield
lc@vmi.asia

Global Emerging Markets
Mr. Jean-Luc Bonnefoy
jbonnefoy@gemny.com

Source : Vending Machines International Pte Ltd

2022 JAPAN PRIZE WINNERS REVEALED

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- The Japan Prize Foundation has announced the winners of the 2022 Japan Prize on Jan 25.

Prof Katalin Kariko (Hungary/USA) and Prof Drew Weissman (USA) are co-winners of the Japan Prize in the field of ‘Materials and Production’, and Prof Christopher Field (USA) has been awarded the Japan Prize in the field of ‘Biological Production, Ecology/Environment’.

With this year's prize, Kariko and Weissman are being recognised for their pioneering research contributing to the development of mRNA vaccines.

Meanwhile, Field is being recognised for his outstanding contributions to the estimation of global biospheric productivity and climate change science using advanced formulae based on observation.

This year, the Foundation asked approximately 15,500 prominent scientists and engineers from worldwide to nominate researchers working in this year's fields, and it received 208 nominations in the field of Materials and Production, and 138 nominations for the field of Biological Production, Ecology/Environment.

This year's winners were selected from that total of 346 candidates, according to a statement.

The establishment of the Japan Prize was motivated by the Japanese government's desire to create an internationally recognised award that would contribute to scientific and technological development around the world.

With the support of numerous donations, the Japan Prize Foundation received endorsement from the Cabinet Office in 1983.

The Japan Prize is awarded to scientists and engineers from around the world who have made creative and dramatic achievements that help progress their fields and contribute significantly to realising peace and prosperity for all humanity. 

-- BERNAMA

SMARTTRADE REPORTS A YEAR OF STRONG GROWTH, EXPECTS BUSINESS TO SOAR IN 2022

 AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, Jan 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- smartTrade Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end multi-asset electronic trading solutions headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, has reported yet another year of success. 2021 saw the enhancement of a number of its core products and was capped by the acquisition in November of Toronto-based TickTrade Systems.

Heralding a new era of M&A activities for smartTrade, the acquisition brought together two complementary technology providers whilst expanding the group presence in North America.

The enlarged group share a joint commitment to innovation heralded by its AI driven analytics offering and crypto currencies trading capabilities.

Throughout 2021 smartTrade continued its relentless focus on R&D, delivering support for new asset classes such as FX options, money markets and precious metals. smartTrade’s flagship product LiquidityFX now supports an ever-growing number of customer needs, enabling access to hundreds of Algos and offering advanced OMS capability. In addition to creating a new DataAPI to support its customers’ own data endeavors, smartTrade capitalized on its AI expertise in 2021 to release a comprehensive Analytics solution fit for traders, sales traders and heads of business.

smartTrade continued to increase its global market share throughout 2021, further strengthening its senior management team. The company’s remote implementation and support capabilities, coupled with the proven resilience of its technology, enabled it to continue to offer an outstanding level of service to its customers despite continued restrictions on global travel and face-to-face meetings.

smartTrade achieved market recognition in 2021 in the form of industry awards for Best FX Aggregator, Best Managed Services Solution, Most Innovative Use of Open Source/Cloud Technology and Best FX Trading Solution.

David Vincent, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at smartTrade Group, said, “The acquisition of TickTrade opened a new chapter of expansion for smartTrade. Joining forces brings new talent to the company and enables us to expand not only our product offering but also our geographical coverage. We are proud of what we achieved through innovation in 2021 and we look forward to building on this in 2022 to offer an even better service to existing and new clients across the globe.”

About smartTrade Technologies:

smartTrade Technologies is a leading global provider of multi-asset electronic trading platforms, helping customers achieve business growth through our cost-efficient, technologically advanced secure private SaaS end-to-end solution.

smartTrade in-house hosted solutions support Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Crypto and Derivatives asset classes with connectivity to 130+ liquidity providers, enabling tailored aggregation, smart execution, risk management, order management, analytics, payments and multi-channel distribution.

smartTrade supports a variety of regulated and un-regulated Financial Institutions.

To learn more, visit www.smart-trade.net.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
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Contact

Lara Michel – COS smartTrade Technologies – lmichel@smart-trade.net

Source : smartTrade Technologies

New Insurers to Drive Digitalisation in South Korea Non-Life Segment - AM Best report

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 -- New and fully digitalised insurance companies entering South Korea’s non-life industry hold the potential to exacerbate a highly competitive marketplace in the long term, according to a new AM Best report.

In its Best’s Special Report, “New Insurers to Drive Digitalisation in South Korea Non-Life Segment,” AM Best notes that technology giant Kakao Corp, which runs South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger app, KakaoTalk, is planning its foray into the non-life insurance segment in the first half of 2022, leveraging its user base and digital ecosystem.

Several other players have entered or are planning to enter South Korea’s digital non-life business segment, offering products such as pay-per-mile auto insurance with a monthly deferred payment scheme.

According to a statement, the report also states that large financial groups are increasingly expressing interest in the digital non life business.

Digital insurers typically concentrate on simple and small-ticket insurance products when they enter the market, according to the report, and as a result, these new players will require time to amass a sizeable premium base in order to cover the upfront investment in technology and ultimately make meaningful profits.

At the same time, according to the report, a digital insurer that is able to accumulate a large policyholder base quickly while preparing to expand into major product lines could find itself able to compete meaningfully against traditional incumbents.

The report also notes that digital insurers likely will turn first toward auto insurance, given that auto policies are mandatory and that online sales are more easily accepted; however, claims management expertise among traditional players will remain a barrier for new entrants.

While AM Best does not expect new digital insurers to have a material impact on overall competition in the short term, they could motivate existing players to reexamine their business structures and strategies.

Innovative products and services introduced by new digital entrants could inspire traditional insurers to accelerate their innovation efforts and increase insurance penetration in areas that historically have been underinsured.

More details at www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

AM Best affirms credit ratings of Nippon Life Insurance Company, subsidiary

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 -- Global credit rating agency AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “aa-” (Superior) of Japan's Nippon Life Insurance Company (Nissay).

Concurrently, the rating agency has affirmed the FSR of A- (Excellent) and Long-Term ICR of “a-” (Excellent) of Nippon Life Insurance Company of America (NLB) (West Des Moines, Iowa, United States).

The outlook of these credit ratings is stable.

In a statement today, AM Best said the ratings of Nissay reflect its strong balance sheet and strong operating performance, favourable business profile, and appropriate enterprise risk management.

"Nissay’s balance sheet strength reflects its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by AM Best’s capital adequacy ratio (BCAR). This assessment is also supported by Nissay's low financial leverage.

"Although the company is exposed to moderate equity risk from its stock investment portfolio, its sizeable available capital and access to debt markets as one of Japan's largest life insurers should allow it to absorb such risk," it said.

Nissay has a market share of 18 per cent in Japan in terms of premium income. The company’s sales representative base remains strong, and it is making efforts to diversify its distribution channels further to achieve revenue growth and strengthen profitability in its domestic market.

Meanwhile, the ratings of NLB also reflect its balance sheet strength which is supported by its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by BCAR, and which is enhanced by a conservative portfolio and strong liquidity measures.

The ratings also took into consideration NLB’s importance to Nissay and the operating support provided by its parent company.

The capital growth lagged premium expansion over the past five years, as net income has remained relatively modest, and the company continued to pay dividends to the parent. However, capital remains more than sufficient to support NLB’s risks.

NLB has reported volatile underwriting results over the past five years. However, results improved in 2018 and 2019, and were especially profitable in 2020 due to the deferral of non-essential care driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Underwriting results reverted toward pre-pandemic levels, but remained elevated as utilisation rebounded through three quarters in 2021 due to a combination of higher normal utilisation and COVID-19 testing and treatment.

More details can be obtained at www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

PROSPECTION AND NOVOTECH PARTNER TO ACCELERATE CLINICAL TRIALS WITH REAL WORLD EVIDENCE

SYDNEY, Jan 25 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Global healthcare data technology company, Prospection, and leading Asia-Pacific biotech specialist CRO, Novotech Health Holdings, announce a strategic partnership to combine the power of real world evidence and clinical trials to get medicines to patients faster. The partnership includes an investment by Novotech in Prospection.

Under the partnership, Prospection will become a technology partner of Novotech, providing its proprietary real world data analytics to support clinical trial feasibility assessment, execution and recruitment in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Real world evidence has reached a value inflection point becoming broadly accepted and increasingly utilised by regulatory authorities, as we’ve seen with its application to help manage COVID-19. The combination of our real world data analytics with Novotech’s clinical development expertise and footprint across the Asia-Pacific region brings together two nimble companies focused on generating evidence to support healthcare innovation and ultimately improve health outcomes for patients,” said CEO Eric Chung.

“By making an investment in Prospection and entering into this partnership, Novotech will add best-in-class data and analytics capabilities to our existing region leading biotech-focused suite of services for our clients,” said Novotech CEO Dr John Moller.

“Driven by Prospection’s data analytics, our clients would benefit from more accurate patient identification, faster patient recruitment, compressed trial timelines and analytics capabilities to power real world clinical trials,” he added.

Prospection uses advanced analytics and AI algorithms to follow millions of patients over time to search for patterns in their health and the effectiveness of therapeutic journeys which can be harnessed in phase 4 studies. It can produce real world evidence in weeks that would have otherwise taken years to collect and analyse in a clinical trial.

Equally important, the partnership will help speed up trial design and feasibility as well as patient recruitment into trials. Patient recruitment can be one of the biggest hurdles in developing medicines, particularly in complex trials or when looking for patients within disease sub-segments or with rare diseases.

Prospection’s analytics technology ingests de-identified patient data from varied sources, including healthcare providers and health records. This enables it to geolocate trial investigators or study sites with patients meeting the study criteria, thereby identifying locations for high recruitment potential.

As part of the partnership, Novotech has made a minority equity investment in Prospection. This follows Prospection’s $45m Series B round in September 2021.

Learn more about Prospection at www.prospection.com

Learn more about Novotech at novotech-holdings.com


View source version on businesswire.com: 
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Contact

Prospection: Catherine Strong, Citadel-MAGNUS, cstrong@citadelmagnus.com, +61 (0)406 759 268

Novotech: David James, communications@novotech-cro.com, +61 2 8218 2144

Source : Prospection