Also, Huobi partners Nervos to bring new public blockchain, and soCash joins forces with ICBC to provide easy cash withdrawals in Singapore

Masayoshi Son of SoftBank to meet Indonesia’s president Jokowi [DealStreetAsia]

Chairman of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp Masayoshi Son is reportedly going to visit Indonesia’s reelected President Joko Widodo in August, as learned by DealStreetAsia.

According to Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan, Son is said to be interested in exploring more investment opportunities in the country and was the one who reached out about the meeting.

SoftBank is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent tech investors, and so far has made a few investments in Indonesia companies such as e-commerce Tokopedia, m-POS company Moka, co-working space Co-Hive, and stock platform Ajaib. The country’s number one plans to offer a few projects that will include fields like power, agriculture, and fishery.

Huobi and Nervos join forces to develop new public blockchain [Press Release]

Blockchain service provider Huobi Group announced a partnership with blockchain network Nervos in a mission to develop a new public blockchain, seeking to focus on decentralised financial (DeFi) services.

The project is called Huobi Finance Chain and it will be a regulatory-friendly financial blockchain that allows enterprises, financial institutions, and exchanges to deploy their own blockchains, tokenised assets, and DeFi services. The project is said to have the potential to host lending services, debit services, stablecoins, security token offerings (STOs), and other means of asset issuance, decentralised exchanges (DEXs), real-world payment services, and more.

Also Read: 3 fintech startups win the chance to pilot project with UNCDF

Nervos is providing the technology for the new blockchain platform, which will be launched in partnership with Huobi as part of a joint initiative to accelerate the future of decentralised finance. The project is expected to open source in Q3 this year, testnet launch in Q1 2020, and mainnet launch in Q2 2020.

The joint project is to be open source and will provide multi-asset support and smart contract capabilities to enable third-party developers to build and deploy a wide range of DeFi services. The platform will also support multi and side chain architectures to provide a flexible and globally scalable blockchain infrastructure for financial institutions and enterprises.

The project will support decentralized identifier (DID) and implement identity protocols such as Know Your Customer (KYC) verification to meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements and ensure full regulatory compliance. Regulators will also be able to join Huobi Chain and contribute to the network as validators.

soCash and ICBC get together to provide easy cash withdrawals in Singapore [Press Release]

Singapore-headquartered startup soCash announced partnership with ICBC Singapore to extend its services to all ICBC customers in Singapore and enable them to perform basic banking services like cash withdrawal from neighborhood shops using the soCash app. soCash allows shops to be converted into virtual ATMs.

“As virtual banks emerge in Asia and traditional banks embrace digital business models, there is a growing need for more O2O (online to offline) networks. With this launch, thousands of our partner shops now have the platform to offer ICBC’s product & services, generating new revenue opportunities for them,” said Hari Sivan, CEO of soCash.

Launched in mid-2018, the soCash app started off allowing bank customers to withdraw cash from stores as an alternative to ATMs. As its technology directly plugs into the banks’ APIs, users can place a cash order via the soCash app and select a nearby merchant to collect the cash from, while the app deducts the selected amount from the customer’s account, all done digitally.

Indonesian law firm Makes & Partners Law Firm launches Aksara Nusantara to support funding’s legal matters [Press Release]

Makes & Partners Law Firm, an Indonesia-headquartered law firm specialised in legal issues of mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, banking, investment, and capital market, announced that it has launched A Kit of Standards Startup Agreement, or Aksara Nusantara.

Aksara Nusantara aims to help startups and investors in legal documentation, contains general templates of documents such as Term Sheet, Share Subscription Agreement, Shareholders’ Agreement, Convertible Note Agreement, and Pledge of Shares Agreement. These documents are now freely accessible by all startups, accelerators, VCs, and future investors by downloading it in Aksara Nusantara page in www.makeslaw.com.

“We used the branding “The Firsts” to facilitate startups and entrepreneurs in tackling the problem in hiring quality law consultant that’s usually costly. “The Firsts” provides all the documents and the references that are usually used in an international fundraising standard procedure as well as Indonesian law-adjusted for free,” said Yozua Makes, Managing Partner and Founder of Makes & Partners.

Furthermore, the law firm also collaborates with Lexar, a legal tech company to give a cost-efficient service for startup clients.

Upskilling platform Caymus Technology secures angel round from India and Silicon Valley [Press Release]

Mumbai-based skilling platform, Caymus Technology Ventures (Caymus) has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from a clutch of angel investors from India and the US. Silicon Valley technology leader, Rob Solomon reportedly participated in the round and will join the advisory board as a mentor to the Founder and CEO.

Caymus said that it will use this capital to fuel growth and make significant investments to its core AI-based technology and product stack.

Also Read: Charle Charoenphan succeeds brother as CEO of HUBBA Thailand

Caymus was started in 2018 by Kavita Mehta, a serial entrepreneur, who had earlier co-founded The Red Pen, a leading education platform for global university and MBA placements. She is also co-author of HarperCollins-published book Acing Admissions: The Indian Student’s Comprehensive Guide to US College Applications.

Caymus’s flagship product, Lore, targets recent graduates and experienced professionals looking to upskill themselves.

“Using Lore, we leverage AI so that candidates can make their own informed, right-fit decisions about the skills they want to add to their portfolio,” said Kavita Mehta, Founder, and CEO, Caymus.
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