Author: Company Announcement

Coinbase regularly engages with students and universities across the country as part of recruiting efforts. They partnered with Qriously to ask students directly about their thoughts on crypto and blockchain — and in this report, they outline findings on the growing roster of crypto and blockchain courses amid a steady rise in student interest. When David Yermack, the finance department chair at New York University Stern School of Business, first offered his course on blockchain and financial services in 2014, 35 students signed up, eight fewer than the school’s typical elective. By spring 2018, the number of enrolled students climbed to 230,…

Standard Chartered announced today a collaboration with Siemens Financial Services, the financing arm of Siemens, and TradeIX, a digital trade provider, to carry out an industry-first client pilot to create an end-to-end blockchain-based smart guarantees proposition in trade finance. With a view to transform the traditionally paper intensive Bank Guarantees business, this is the first blockchain client pilot that fully digitises the process, from initiation of the bank guarantee to the claim handling. Motasim Iqbal, Head, Transaction Banking UAE, Standard Chartered, said, “This is an industry-defining solution which we believe will transform the way guarantees are issued and processed in…

It seems like every day that another gaming company is receiving a 100-million-dollar capital injection from a major tech overlord or private investor. Korea’s Long, Booming Relationship with Gaming The amount of investment that is piling into the Korean gaming market is simply astonishing. By 2021, the eSports industry will be worth well over 1.6 billion dollars. When did all of this start happening? Korea has been a leader in gaming since StarCraft rose in popularity at internet cafes in the late 90s and early 2000s. The early days of PC Bangs laid the groundwork for a revolution in gaming…

Travelstop, a Singapore based travel startup that plans to re-imagine and simplify business travel in Asia, has raised US$1.2 million (S$1.65 million) from leading investors in Singapore and USA, and is launching in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia today. The Seed investment was led by Singapore-based venture capital firm SeedPlus, along with a leading, travel focused venture capital firm based in the US. Several industry veterans including Dan Lynn and Vikram Malhi (ex-Expedia senior business leaders and founders of Zuzu Hospitality Solutions), David Ko (President & COO of Rally Health), and Jarrod Howe (Regional Operations Director at Hyper…

CGS-CIMB Securities launches  eWealth in Singapore. The robo-advisory platform taps on the Company‟s research capabilities to provide goal-based and thematic portfolios to help investors meet their need for investment diversification through pairing portfolios with investors‟ risk profiles and investment objectives. Ms Carol Fong, Group CEO of CGS-CIMB Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., said, “CGS-CIMB eWealth is a good complement to our existing brokerage business which helps clients to grow their wealth with mid-to-long term strategies. Leveraging our strong research capabilities, we will provide clients with a wide range of portfolio selections, from conservative options for those with a low-risk appetite to…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore  and Singapore Exchange announced a collaboration to develop Delivery versus Payment (DvP) capabilities for settlement of tokenised assets across different blockchain platforms. This will allow financial institutions and corporate investors to carry out simultaneous exchange and final settlement of tokenised digital currencies and securities assets, improving operational efficiency and reducing settlement risks. Three companies, Anquan, Deloitte and Nasdaq have been appointed as technology partners for this project. They will leverage on the open-source software developed and made publicly available in Project Ubin Phase The project will produce a report that examines the potential of automating DvP…

OCBC Bank claims to become the first bank in Southeast Asia to launch a robo-investment service, OCBC RoboInvest. Targeting young and tech-savvy investors, it requires an initial investment amount of SGD3,500.00. Just as they might pick a playlist using a digital music service, customers can choose from 28 diverse portfolios of equities and exchange traded funds across six markets, constructed based on themes like technology, real estate investment trusts, fast-moving-consumer-goods companies, property, healthcare and food & beverage. OCBC RoboInvest uses algorithms to monitor each portfolio automatically and periodically re-balance assets if there are economic and market movements that impact the portfolio.…

We talked to Dr Cambria ahead of his presentation at the Big Data and AI Leaders Summit (September 12 & 13, Singapore), to discuss AI and the challenges it can both solve and create. Dr Erik Cambria is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University and recipient of many awards, including the IEEE Outstanding Early Career award and the AI’s 10 to Watch award by IEEE Intelligent Systems.  He is also the founder of SenticNet, a spinoff offering B2B sentiment analysis services. Tell us about yourself, your background and what you do I have been always passionate about reasoning and, in…

While the coherent regulation of blockchain and fintech industry is yet to be developed, fintech startups find themselves navigating through regulatory jungles of various dos and don’ts when formulating their business models. Recent actions and statements of most state regulators showed that many tokens currently in circulation are likely to be considered investment instruments regulated by securities laws, and even non-security tokens may fall under the regulation, such as payment services or insurance, as well as KYC/AML requirements and customer protection laws. Thus, fluency in financial regulation becomes an important success factor for fintech projects in crypto industry. Teams of…

A little more than 3 months after their successful ICO, the German company  Unibright is making headlines with high potential partnerships s and first customers for real use cases. Being a team of developers with 20+ years of experience in business integration, Unibright seems to know how to address common key problems of any company when it comes to new technology, especially in terms of Blockchain. Marten Jung, CEO from UNIBRIGHT states: „Nowadays most companies have a strong interest in Blockchain technology, but struggle to use it. That is why we created the Unibright framework. It’s an easy-to-use, non-techie approach…

Sophisticated and intelligent threats have become the norm rather than the exception in the cryptocurrency space. Sentinel Protocol is conceived as a fundamental collective intelligence system, enabling the entire crypto community to support one another in reducing crypto scams and frauds. Sentinel Protocol has a unique story: founder and CEO Patrick Kim, experienced an Ether wallet theft. In 2016, he lost 7,218 Ether from a geth-mist wallet due to previously unrecognized security vulnerabilities. Following the attack, Patrick dedicated himself to investigating the attack vectors which led to security patches to the wallet, mitigating the risk for future geth-mist users. While…

Commonwealth Bank  has been mandated by the World Bank to be the sole arranger of the first bond globally to be created, allocated, transferred and managed using blockchain technology. The $AUD Kangaroo bond, termed ‘bond-i’ – Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument – has been developed with the support and input of the investor community including Northern Trust, QBE and Treasury Corporation of Victoria. Once launched the bond will be issued and distributed on a blockchain platform operated by the World Bank and CBA in Washington and Sydney, respectively. This collaboration built on the longstanding partnership between the two organisations, with the World…

56 %. That is the percentage of ICO-funded Crypto startups that are bound to collapse after just four months. Admittedly, such a high rate of failure is quite baffling, as funding is most of the time not the main reason – after all, countless startups outreach their hard cap yet find themselves unable to move ahead and deliver on their promises. Evidently enough, many factors come into play to determine a project’s success before, during, and post-ICO. It is also true that some of said factors are unpredictable, but there are nevertheless some constants that are easily identifiable. The discipline…

The fintech industry has achieved a new milestone recently. According to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech report, Global fintech investment roared ahead at a record pace in the first half of 2018, with US$57.9B invested across 875 deals. This value is leaps and bounds beyond the US$38.1B invested throughout the entirety of 2017. Global fintech investment roared ahead at a record pace in the first half of 2018, with US$57.9B invested across 875 deals, a significant increase from the US$38.1B invested in all of 2017, according to the  Pulse of Fintech report. Some of the trailblazers include the record-setting US$14B raise…

Despite being small countries, both Switzerland and Singapore are renowned for a high degree of innovation. In 2018, Switzerland has been ranked number one by the Global Innovation Index for the eighth year in a row while Singapore is the most innovative country in the world outside Europe and ranked fifth in this year’s ranking. According to the Business Times, the Southeast-Asian state was “the best performer for political stability and safety, market capitalisation, foreign direct investment inflows, high and medium-high tech manufacturing and high-tech net exports.” Switzerland on the other hand scores particularly high in the category ‘knowledge and technology…

EZ-Link,  You Technologies Group and Mastercard launched YouTrip, the first multi-currency mobile wallet enabling users to pay in more than 150 currencies when overseas or shopping online without any currency conversion or transaction fees. This tri-party collaboration marks EZ-Link’s first advancement into FinTech, pioneering the future of multi-currency payments in the region. YouTrip is a multi-currency mobile wallet with a contactless Mastercard prepaid card issued by EZ-Link in collaboration with You Technologies Group for users to pay at more than 30 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. With YouTrip, users do not need to incur fees typically charged for currency exchange at banks and…

Cloud-based lending software provider Turnkey Lender have announced that it will collaborate with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to offer its software on HPE ProLiant for Microsoft Azure stack, a hybrid cloud platform. The announcement builds on the success of an initial benchmark test at HPE’s Customer Technology Centre in Singapore. Founded in 2014, Turnkey Lender supplies lending enterprises with open, secure and integrated end-to-end lending automation solutions. These span the entire life cycle of loans, including the applications process, credit scoring, decision-making, loan-servicing, soft collection and reporting stages. Turnkey Lender CEO, Dmitry Voronenko, noted how the collaboration would fast-track lenders’ ability…

Wirecard announced that they’ve extended their partnership up with EZ-Link and Cheers. Now cardholders purchasing goods at select Cheers stores can elect to transfer any change to their EZ-Link card for free. Due to a longtime monopoly that was only recently met with competition, EZ-Link is probably one of Singapore’s most widely used contactless cards for both buses and trains and as a result, many Singaporeans own and use an EZ-Link card. This initiative was first announced earlier this year in February as part of a joint effort by EZ-Link and NTUC (National Trades Union Congress in Singapore). The move…

Prudential announced it has entered into an exclusive partnership agreement with UK-based healthcare technology and services company Babylon Health. Babylon’s artificial intelligence (“AI”) expertise will be made available to existing and new customers of Prudential across Asia marking a step change in Prudential’s commitment to provide digital health services making healthcare affordable and accessible across Asia. Prudential is a leading provider of medical insurance in Asia, with over five million health customers and premium income exceeding £800 million in 2017. Based in the UK, Babylon offers a  suite of AI-powered health services, including personal health assessment and treatment information, empowering…

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) announced that it is introducing a digital bank for ASEAN’s massive and increasing base of ‘mobile first’ and ‘mobile only’ customers. UOB’s Digital Bank will be deployed in its key Southeast Asian markets as the Group accelerates and broadens the growth of its regional customer franchise. UOB’s Digital Bank customers across the region will enjoy a fully digital experience which is intuitive, transparent and engaging – from the moment they apply to open an account through to their everyday lifestyle needs. Every interaction will be designed to deepen the customer relationship through meaningful conversations and personalised…