appoints ex-Airbnb & Carousell exec, Chai Jia Jih as CEO- Press release
SE-AsiaTech startup xto10x Technologies announced that it has set up its Singapore office to serve Southeast Asia startups, with Chai Jia Jih (JJ) leading its SE-Asia business as CEO, SE-Asia.
Founded by Saikiran Krishnamurthy (former McKinsey director & ex-Ola, Flipkart executive), Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder & former CEO), Neeraj Aggarwal (ex-Flipkart, Curefit executive), the Bangalore headquartered startup provides software, knowledge, and capabilities across several critical areas of scaling up, such as translating strategy to execution, hyper-growth, operations, data science, HR, strategic business finance, and putting in place operating systems for effective governance.
“After startups have found product-market fit and created serious business momentum, there is still significant work to scale into large, profitable, world-class companies,” said Mr. Krishnamurthy, xto10x Co-founder, and CEO. “There are many more SE-Asia startups now at the scale-phase and we see the opportunity to help them with significant 10x opportunities. We’re excited to have JJ onboard to deliver our solutions to startups in this region”
“After working through 10x growth at both Airbnb and Carousell, I’ve seen that startups face unique challenges in the scale-up phase that they hadn’t needed to solve in earlier stages. I am thrilled to take up this role to help more startups in SE-Asia, bringing expertise from experienced practitioners like Saiki, Binny, and Neeraj to founders in this region” said Chai.
Delivery Hero to buy S Korea’s Woowa Brothers for US$4b- Reuters
German food delivery company Delivery Hero has agreed to acquire its South Korean rival Woowa Brothers for US$4 billion, said a Reuters report.
Woowa Brothers said the companies will also create a joint venture in Singapore to tap into the booming food delivery market in Asia and compete with Grab, UberEats and Gojek. The deal comes as Woowa Brothers Corp, which owns South Korea’s biggest food delivery service “Baedal Minjok”, faces growing competition from rivals such as e-commerce firm Coupang, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group.
Delivery Hero ranks second in South Korea’s food delivery market. Delivery Hero will acquire an 87 per cent stake held by investors such as Goldman, GIC, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital, while the remaining 13 per cent owned by Woowa’s management will be converted into the German company’s stake. Reuters
Singapore-based Acronis acquires software firm 5nine to bolster cloud services- DealStreetAsia
Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity firm Acronis has acquired 5nine, a global provider of Microsoft Hyper-V and Azure cloud management and security solutions, for an undisclosed sum as per a DealStreetAsia report. Following the deal, 5nine will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acronis, per a company statement.
Also read: Goldman Sachs invests US$147M in cybersecurity startup Acronis, gearing up for acquisitions
Acronis will integrate 5nine’s technology into the Acronis Cyber Platform. Founded in 2009, 5nine helps manage and secure workloads across the Microsoft Cloud – public, private or hybrid. Its software is designed to reduce costs, increase productivity, and mitigate security risks. Acronis provides cyber protection, catering to areas such as safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS).
“By adding 5nine’s solutions to our portfolio of cyber protection products and services, we’re giving our partners and customers an easy way to adopt the Microsoft hybrid cloud platform,” said Acronis founder and CEO Serguei “SB” Beloussov. Founded in Singapore in 2003, the company claims that it has 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses worldwide.
YouTube’s Music App Outpaces Spotify and Local Rivals in India- Bloomberg
YouTube has signed up more than 800,000 subscribers for its paid services in India since debuting in March, according to people familiar with the matter, said Bloomberg in an article.
The services are growing faster than rival paid music offerings in India, including Spotify and local players Gaana and JioSaavn, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the subscriber data hasn’t been released. The one paid service that could have more users than YouTube is Apple Music, which has been tight-lipped about its subscriber figures.
YouTube has long struggled to gets users to pay for its services, especially since the company’s main website is synonymous with free videos. But the Google division has started to gain traction, and the numbers out of India suggest it’s having particular success in the world’s second-most-populous country.
YouTube sells two paid services in India: YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium. The music service offers a library of songs on-demand, much like Spotify, as well as the ability to download tracks, listen to music without ads and play tunes while using other apps. YouTube Premium offers the traditional YouTube video service without ads — and the ability to play clips offline. But music is the driving force behind YouTube’s appeal, especially in India.
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