Capco-Envizage strategic partnership to deliver financial services benefits

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 -- Capco, the global management and technology consultancy, and Envizage, the London-based analytics software provider, have announced a new partnership to deliver the benefits of Envizage’s simulation-based holistic advice engine for financial services.

“This is a highly complementary partnership from Capco’s perspective in terms of our respective areas of industry focus and our data and digital capabilities,” said Capco Partner and Insurance Lead, Matt Hutchins.

Meanwhile, Envizage Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Vinay Jayaram said: “Capco’s deep domain expertise, broad delivery capabilities and strong relationships with leading financial services organisations globally will be invaluable as we look to deliver value to our clients across the banking, insurance, retail investment and wealth management, pensions and at-retirement sectors.”

Established by three former Morgan Stanley partners, Envizage supports banks, insurers, pension funds and retail wealth and asset managers through its patented methodology and technology acquired from Morgan Stanley, which is a minority stakeholder in the company.

Delivered as an API, Envizage’s advice engine addresses all financial products in the context of a customer’s future life goals.

Envizage simulates ‘real life’ outcome risks across different customer age groups, from millennials to retirees, using probabilities based on a range of factors, including inflation, longevity, mortality, health and liquidity.

Envizage promises to future-proof clients’ digital or hybrid distribution strategies at scale and reduces platform, compliance and distribution costs, with data-related benefits having the potential to considerably reduce BAU costs.

-- BERNAMA

Guotai Junan International to collaboratively boost China esports industry development

 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 -- Guotai Junan International Holdings Limited (Guotai Junan International, the Group or the GTJAI) will join hands with the Nan Fung Group and Prospect Avenue Capital (PAC) to collaboratively boost development of China esports industry, supporting Versus Programming Network (VSPN).

According to a statement, this is to expand its scale and influence in the esports eco-system, consolidating its market leader position as well as creating standardised and professional competitive sports events.

GTJAI Head of the Private Equity Investment, Peter Chiu, who is in charge of this project said: “As a market leader in China's esports industry, VSPN has occupied a leading position in event hosting and broadcasting business.

“Its keen market perspective in the esports industry along with business experience of its elite team will advance deeper levels in VSPN’s business layout which promotes the internationalisation of VSPN esports events, and gradually reaches the giant global commercial sports field.”

The esports industry is one of the sectors that has been greatly encouraged and supported by the government’s policies in recent years.

GTJAI actively responds to and participates in the government’s policies of upgrading the esports industry structure and promoting the cultural and entertainment industry as well as the economic development through esports events.

In addition, participation in this project enables GTJAI to provide quality products for current wealth management clients, promote the efficient integration and development of various businesses of the Group, to achieve win-win situations with clients.

-- BERNAMA

YesWeHack announces record Asia growth

 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 -- YesWeHack has announced record 250 per cent growth last year in Asia, including a 120 per cent increase in the number of Bug Bounty programmes launched on the YesWeHack platform.

On the hacker side, YesWeHack’s Asian community has more than doubled, and now represents 35 per cent of the total community of 21,000 hunters, according to a statement.

Created in 2013 in France and established since 2019 in Singapore, this growth underscores YesWeHack’s position as one of the leading players in crowdsourced security in Asia, confirming its position as the only alternative to American platforms.

The technology sector was the first market to adopt the crowdsourced security model, and remains the most significant market for YesWeHack, followed by the finance and insurance sectors, which respectively represent 35 per cent and 26 per cent of the Bug Bounty programmes launched on the platform last year.

The financial sector is predicted to rebound significantly during 2021 as a result of the guidelines issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which for the first time include Bug Bounty as a means for financial institutions to discover IT system vulnerabilities.

On the growing demand for crowdsourced security, APAC Managing Director, Kevin Gallerin, says: “2020 marked a turning point for Bug Bounty in Asia. CISOs now consider Bug Bounty as an indispensable and agile tool to secure their organisations.”

-- BERNAMA

Smart Communications enters binding agreement to acquire Assentis Technologies

 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 -- Smart Communications™, the only provider of a customer conversations management platform, has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Assentis, a leading European software solutions provider specialising in customer communications management (CCM).

Via this proposed acquisition, Smart Communications can more effectively serve enterprises in the financial services industry and throughout Continental Europe.

According to a statement, it will also enable current Assentis customers to quickly take advantage of Smart Communications’ proven expertise in multi-tenant SaaS.

Smart Communications Chief Executive Officer, James Brown said: “Already among the key industries we support, we recognised an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to help these firms cater to an increasingly digital-focused customer base.”

Assentis’ CCM solution is currently used by over 100 enterprises to generate a wide variety of critical documents including client reports, fund fact sheets, product presentations, contracts and marketing collateral.

Smart Communications plans to continue to support all Assentis products while also focusing on making its market-leading SaaS platform available throughout the region.

This announcement follows a record-setting year for Smart Communications, which recorded its most successful year in company history.

This is the second acquisition for Smart Communications in the last two years. In July 2019, the company acquired Intelledox, which now delivers forms transformation capabilities as SmartIQ, a key offering of the Smart Communications platform.

-- BERNAMA

LeddarTech adds Carl-Peter Forster to Board of Directors

 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 -- LeddarTech®, a global leader in Level 1-5 ADAS and AD sensing technology, has announced the appointment of Carl-Peter Forster to the Board of Directors, which further enhances the diversity and experience of the Board.

“Carl-Peter’s extensive experience in the automotive industry as well as in ADAS and AD technology companies will be a tremendous asset to LeddarTech,” said LeddarTech chairman of the Board, Michel Brûlé.

Forster has an extensive senior management background in the automotive industry with brands including BMW AG, in Munich, where he held various positions including Vice-President.

According to a statement, he was also Managing Director of BMW South Africa, and a member of the board of BMW AG, responsible for global manufacturing, until 2000.

Since 2013, Forster has been a special adviser to the Chairman of the Geely Group, also holding board positions at Volvo Cars Group in Gothenburg (Sweden), Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd (Hong Kong), as well as CEVT (the Geely engineering centre in Gothenburg).

In addition to serving as board member for LeddarTech, Forster is currently Chairman of Chemring Plc and Chairman of the Shareholder Committee of Hella KGaA, among others.

He holds a degree in economics from Bonn University and a degree in aviation and space technology from the Technical University in Munich, Germany.

-- BERNAMA

Ligature Therapeutics secures US$6 million seed financing

 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 -- Ligature Therapeutics Pte Ltd, an early-stage biotech company has announced the close of US$6 million in seed round funding. (US$1 = RM4.012)

The financing, led by Lightstone Ventures, with the participation of Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm, SEEDS Capital, will be used to build out the team and advance Ligature’s platform technology.

Lightstone Singapore L.P. co-founded Ligature in 2020 with its scientific founders Alvin Hung, PhD; Thomas Keller, PhD; and Congbao Kang, PhD to take a novel approach to designing small molecules capable of degrading disease-causing proteins.

According to a statement, Drs Hung, Keller and Kang are from the Experimental Drug Discovery Centre (EDDC), a national platform hosted by A*STAR for drug discovery and development.

“Lightstone Singapore is committed to building companies based on innovative life science-related technologies developed in Singapore,” said Lightstone Singapore Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth D. Noonan.

“By working with highly motivated scientists like Alvin, Thomas and Congbao, we hope to build globally competitive drug discovery companies.”

Meanwhile, SEEDS Capital Chairman, Ted Tan said: “We will continue to work with top-tier investors to build and support deep tech startups such as Ligature, to grow the local biotech sector and further strengthen Singapore's position as a regional Pharmbio hub.”

Ligature has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with EDDC to develop its protein degrader platform.

-- BERNAMA