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
Monday 31 January 2022
GLOBAL PAYMENTS PROVIDER BLACKHAWK NETWORK PURCHASES MINORITY STAKE IN SINGAPORE-BASED REWARDS AND INCENTIVES COMPANY, WOGI
KLDISCOVERY INTRODUCES NEBULA SINGULARITY™ GLOBAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
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.
Sunday 30 January 2022
ALPHAWAVE WELCOMES TONY CHAN CARUSONE AS CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
With over 20 years of research and industry experience in semiconductors, Carusone will drive the continuous innovation of the company’s leading silicon connectivity solutions enabling next generation technologies
LONDON and TORONTO, Jan 28 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alphawave IP (LN:AWE), a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world’s technology infrastructure, is pleased to announce 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 Tony Pialis, CEO, president, and co-founder of Alphawave. "We have known each other since the early 2000s and he has been an advisor 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 has been a faculty member at the University of Toronto since completing his Ph.D. there in 2002. He’s 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. Carusone 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. As we need to transfer increasingly higher amounts of data in shorter amounts of time while using less power, Alphawave has created the most versatile and high-speed IP solutions that serve a wide variety of different customers and industries – and defy conventional wisdom and perceived limits of the industry,” said Tony Chan Carusone. “Alphawave is a truly visionary company with a strong leadership team. I have the unique opportunity to not only be part of building the industry's leading connectivity solutions but also to foster a great culture of innovation that brings together top researchers and developers.”
Friday 28 January 2022
KLDISCOVERY LAUNCHES NEBULA ENTERPRISE™ SERVER-RACK APPLIANCE
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.
Thursday 27 January 2022
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.
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
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
Wednesday 26 January 2022
VENDING MACHINES INTERNATIONAL SECURES SGD 135 MILLION CAPITAL COMMITMENT FROM GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS (GEM) AS COMPANY SEEKS TO GO PUBLIC
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.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220125006251/en/
“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
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220125006251/en/
Contact
VMI
Mr. Leicester Chatfield
lc@vmi.asia
Global Emerging Markets
Mr. Jean-Luc Bonnefoy
jbonnefoy@gemny.com
Source : Vending Machines International Pte Ltd
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:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220125005070/en/
Contact
Lara Michel – COS smartTrade Technologies – lmichel@smart-trade.net
Source : smartTrade Technologies
Tuesday 25 January 2022
PROSPECTION AND NOVOTECH PARTNER TO ACCELERATE CLINICAL TRIALS WITH REAL WORLD EVIDENCE
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:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220124005284/en/
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
Monday 24 January 2022
BOON HUI KHOO TO JOIN ARQIT AS ADVISOR
LONDON, Jan 24 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arqit Quantum Inc. (“Arqit”), a leader in quantum encryption technology, is pleased to announce the appointment of Boon Hui Khoo as an advisor, effective immediately.
An internationally-regarded expert in law enforcement and cybersecurity, Boon Hui has led a highly distinguished and decorated career fighting crime for over 40 years. He previously served as Senior Deputy Secretary of Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry, as the Police Commissioner of Singapore from 1997 to 2010, and as President of INTERPOL from 2008 to 2012. He has chaired major international fora, including three of the very first US-Singapore homeland security dialogues, and the biennial Milipol APAC security conference.
He remains active in INTERPOL, chairing its Governance Working group, and holds advisory and board positions across the financial services, fintech, healthcare, security, cybersecurity, and philanthropy sectors. He was a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, remains a board member of the Global Cyber Alliance and an advisor to the CyberPeace Institute.
In recognition of his contributions to public service and safety, Boon Hui has been decorated with high national honours from Singapore, Australia, Brunei, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Vatican. He is also a Senior Fellow of Singapore’s Civil Service College, an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, and a Justice of Peace. Boon Hui was educated in Oxford, Harvard, and Wharton, and is married with two children.
Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO David Williams, said: “We are thrilled to have Boon Hui join the Arqit advisory team. He brings an immense wealth of experience and specialist insight into global cyber security as well as high status in the Singapore market which will be invaluable as we execute our vision to deliver stronger, simpler encryption to the world.”
Boon Hui Khoo added: “Joining Arqit’s world-class team of quantum tech experts is an incredible honour and I look forward to working with them. We share a great optimism about Arqit’s offering and the progress they have already made towards driving critical conversations around cybersecurity imperatives on a global stage.”
About Arqit
Arqit supplies a unique quantum encryption Platform-as-a-Service which makes the communications links of any networked device secure against current and future forms of attack – even from a quantum computer. Arqit’s product, QuantumCloud™, enables any device to download a lightweight software agent, which can create encryption keys in partnership with any other device. The keys are computationally secure, optionally one-time use and zero trust. QuantumCloud™ can create limitless volumes of keys in limitless group sizes and can regulate the secure entrance and exit of a device in a group. The addressable market for QuantumCloud™ is every connected device.
Media relations enquiries:
Arqit: Julie Moon T: +44 7825 503 950 E: julie.moon@arqit.uk
Investor relations enquiries:
Arqit: investorrelations@arqit.uk
Gateway: arqit@gatewayir.com
Caution About Forward-Looking Statements
This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Arqit’s expectations and beliefs concerning future events and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These factors are difficult to predict accurately and may be beyond Arqit’s control. Forward-looking statements in this communication or elsewhere speak only as of the date made. New uncertainties and risks arise from time to time, and it is impossible for Arqit to predict these events or how they may affect it. Except as required by law, Arqit does not have any duty to, and does not intend to, update or revise the forward-looking statements in this communication or elsewhere after the date this communication is issued. In light of these risks and uncertainties, investors should keep in mind that results, events or developments discussed in any forward-looking statement made in this communication may not occur. Uncertainties and risk factors that could affect Arqit’s future performance and cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to: (i) risks that the business combination disrupts Arqit’s current plans and operations, (ii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the Arqit related to the business combination, (iii) the ability to maintain the listing of Arqit’s securities on a national securities exchange, (iv) changes in the competitive and regulated industries in which Arqit operates, variations in operating performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Arqit’s business and changes in the combined capital structure, (v) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the business combination, and identify and realize additional opportunities, (vi) the potential inability of Arqit to convert its pipeline or orders in backlog into revenue, (vii) the potential inability of Arqit to successfully deliver its operational technology which is still in development, (viii) the risk of interruption or failure of Arqit’s information technology and communications system, (ix) the enforceability of Arqit’s intellectual property, and (x) other risks and uncertainties set forth in the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in Arqit’s annual report on Form 20-F, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on December 16, 2021 and in subsequent filings with the SEC. While the list of factors discussed above and the list of factors presented in the final prospectus are considered representative, no such list should be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. Unlisted factors may present significant additional obstacles to the realization of forward-looking statements.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cd85127f-ad5e-4758-87b4-ab3f8c9425b3
Tony Roma’s restaurant sizzles celebrating 50th anniversary
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 -- Romacorp Inc, the parent company of Tony Roma’s®, the world’s largest casual dining concept and widely-recognised restaurant brand that specialises in ribs, celebrates its 50th anniversary.
On Jan 20, 1972, the company’s founder Tony Roma opened his flagship restaurant, Tony Roma’s, in North Miami, Florida. The restaurant quickly became one of the most popular eateries in Miami and established its niche in the market, according to a statement.
Now, after 50 years of successful growth and worldwide expansion, the company is celebrating being one of the most recognisable names in the restaurant industry.
“As we look to the next 50-plus years, we are focused on growth, a fresh new concept, family-friendly dining experiences and continuing to serve up our saucy and flavourful ribs. We look forward to bringing families together around the table for many more years to come,” said CEO (Acting) & COO of Romacorp Inc, Ramon Bourgeois.
Recently, the brand announced its new visionary leadership team which is paving the way for the brand’s next chapter of growth to expand the brand and Tony Roma’s portfolio of dining experiences.
Later this year, the brand plans to launch a 3,000+ square foot dining prototype along with its 500 square foot fast-casual concept Bones & Burgers™, which will cater to on-the-go guests, while still providing the same quality ingredients and fresh preparations in an authentic quick-service space.
The company plans to open 200 Tony Roma’s locations over the next decade, primarily focusing on markets in the Middle East, Asia and the United States. The newest Tony Roma’s locations are set to open in North Carolina this summer and Montana before year-end.
Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Tony Roma’s is present in 20 countries and is one of the most globally recognisable names in the industry.
More details at www.tonyromas.com.
-- BERNAMA
Sunday 23 January 2022
Kyriba's innovation honoured by Global Finance Magazine
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 -- Kyriba, a leading cloud-based finance software, has been recognised as ‘Best Treasury Management Software’ and ‘Best Open Banking Treasury Solution’ by Global Finance Magazine.
These rankings, which are part of the 22nd annual World’s Best Treasury & Cash Management Providers awards, honour leading companies that show agility in executing practical solutions to corporate treasury teams and have flawlessly differentiated themselves from competitors.
Kyriba is one of only two organisations to win more than one award this year, according to a statement.
“We are honoured that Global Finance has recognised the innovation of Kyriba’s Treasury Management Solution and Open Banking inspired Open API platform,” said Kyriba Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Luc Robert.
“Kyriba’s innovation enables CFOs, CIOs and Treasurers to rapidly address their most compelling liquidity challenges, and build-on award winning solutions from Kyriba.”
Global Finance Magazine, known as ‘the leading voice for modern finance’ carefully selects the top treasury and cash management providers based on input from industry analysts, banking executives, technology experts and other independent research.
Honourees will be recognised at a ceremony to be held during the annual Sibos conference in Amsterdam later this year.
Kyriba was also recently named ‘Best TMS Provider with FX module’ and ‘Best Solution for FX Cash-Flow Hedging’ by Global Finance Magazine’s Gordon W. Platt Foreign Exchange Awards 2022.
More details at www.kyriba.com.
-- BERNAMA
Friday 21 January 2022
EVEREST GROUP RECOGNIZES INDEGENE AS A LEADER IN ITS LIFE SCIENCES COMMERCIAL SERVICES SPECIALISTS PEAK MATRIX® ASSESSMENT 2022
PRINCETON, N.J., Jan 19 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Everest Group, a leading global research firm recognized Indegene as a Leader in its first-ever Life Sciences Commercial Services Specialists PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022.
Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® is a proprietary framework for assessing service providers’ market impact, vision and capability. While global service providers traditionally dominated the life sciences IT services space; in the past few years, the industry’s IT services supply ecosystem has evolved. Many specialist life sciences IT service providers are gaining a strong foothold in the market. Their unique value proposition comprising domain expertise, niche solutions and services, engagement flexibility and superlative client management has enabled specialists to carve out a niche for themselves and challenge the front-runners directly. Everest Group’s Life Sciences Commercial Services Specialists PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022 recognizes such specialist organizations.Everest Group recognized Indegene as a Leader in this assessment based on its domain expertise evident through its proven and scalable enterprise-wide CoEs, visionary thought leadership, strong technical expertise with an in-house developed suite of NEXT technology platforms, a well-rounded future strategy to penetrate new markets while strengthening existing ones, and growing industry partnerships.
AM BEST UPGRADES CREDIT RATINGS OF HOTAI INSURANCE CO., LTD.
HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- AM Best has
upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A (Excellent) from A-
(Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “a” (Excellent)
from “a-” (Excellent) of Hotai Insurance Co., Ltd. (Hotai Insurance)
(Taiwan). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) has been revised
to stable from positive.
The ratings reflect Hotai Insurance’s
balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well
as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and
appropriate enterprise risk management. The ratings also reflect the
support that the company receives from its ultimate parent, Ho Tai Motor
Co., Ltd. (Ho Tai Motor).
The rating upgrades reflect the
revision of Hotai Insurance’s operating performance assessment from
marginal to adequate. The company was acquired in early 2017 by its
parent group, Ho Tai Motor, and managed to transform its business
successfully, having turned around its underwriting performance to
deliver stable underwriting profits since 2018 with lowered expense and
combined ratios. Its investment performance also improved in recent
years following a moderate increase in investment risk appetite. Hotai
Insurance reported an improved return-on-equity (ROE) ratio over the
past three years, with 2020 ROE recorded at 7.9%, which supported an
adequate operating performance assessment. Going forward, AM Best
expects that the company’s underwriting performance will continue to
align with the industry average, while its bottom line will be highly
dependent on its investment performance.
Hotai Insurance’s
balance sheet strength is supported by its risk-adjusted capitalisation
at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio
(BCAR). Invested assets remain highly liquid, but the company moderately
increased its investment allocation to higher risk assets in recent
years, such as listed stocks and exchange traded funds, to enhance
yields. An appropriate reinsurance programme has been arranged to
protect its capital in tandem with its fast business expansion. Hotai
Insurance exhibited a declining solvency ratio in line with its business
plan, due to a rapid growth in underwriting leverage and increased
asset risk. However, AM Best expects the company’s risk-adjusted
capitalisation to remain supportive of its very strong balance sheet
strength assessment, underpinned by the strengthened capital base
through full retention of earnings over the past five years.
Motor
insurance represents approximately 60% of Hotai Insurance’s
underwriting book, which is higher than the industry average, as a
result of its parent’s support. Ho Tai Motor has been the leading
automotive distributor in Taiwan for the past two decades and leads its
market competitors by a reasonable gap. Leveraging its long-established
relationship with Toyota Motor Corporation, Ho Tai Motor is the key
distributor of Toyota vehicles in Taiwan. Ho Tai Motor provides implicit
support to Hotai Insurance in terms of its extensive car dealer network
and high-quality motor insurance business. In addition, a letter of
undertaking was issued by Hotai Insurance’s immediate parent as evidence
of the group’s explicit capital support. Over the short to intermediate
term, AM Best expects that Ho Tai Motor’s fundamentals will remain
stable and its support rendered to Hotai Insurance will remain strong.
Hotai
Insurance is well-positioned at the current rating level and positive
rating actions are unlikely over the near term. Negative rating actions
could occur if a faster-than-expected premium growth or
higher-than-expected risk profile leads to a sharp decline in the
company’s risk-adjusted capitalisation. Negative rating actions could
also occur if there is a material deterioration in Ho Tai Motor’s credit
profile, or if the level of support decreases significantly. Negative
rating actions may arise if the company’s operating performance
materially and adversely deviates from its business plan.
Ratings
are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated
otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that
communication.
This press release relates to
Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all
rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures,
including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the
individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings.
For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s
Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.
AM
Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data
analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered
in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries
with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
Copyright © 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220120005673/en/
Contact
June Wang
Financial Analyst
+852 2827 3416
june.wang@ambest.com
James Chan
Associate Director
+852 2827 3418
james.chan@ambest.com
Christopher Sharkey
Manager, Public Relations
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com
Jim Peavy
Director, Communications
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644
james.peavy@ambest.com
Source : AM Best