PLDT exiting Rocket Internet by selling US$50M worth stake this year [DealStreetAsia]
Philippine-listed telecom and digital services firm PLDT is selling its remaining stake in German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet worth $50 million to finance its capital expenditures this year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PLDT Senior Vice President June Cheryl Cabal-Revilla confirmed reports that the company is disposing some of its real estate assets as well as its about two million shares in Rocket Internet on opportunistic basis to bankroll its capex for 2020, which the company said is “slightly bigger than 2019”.
Chinese EV maker Byton debuts SUV with 48-inch dashboard screen at CES 2020 [KrAsia]
Beijing-based electric vehicle (EV) maker Byton debuted the production version of its M-Byte SUV model on Sunday at CES 2020, the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas, local media Tencent News reported.
The long-awaited M-Byte model features a 48-inch screen that spans the whole dashboard, offering content such as weather, GPS, media, and stock prices, among others. The firm has also announced a wide range of key partnerships to power various functions of the vehicle’s massive screen, including one with mass media conglomerate ViacomCBS and ACCESS, which will allow passengers to stream television programming and movies in the vehicle.
Ex-Coty Executive Venkatesh Babu Joins Blockchain Solutions Provider Aqilliz [press release]
Aqilliz, a blockchain-enabled digital marketing solutions provider, has announced the appointment of ex-Coty Regional Sales Director for Southeast Asia Venkatesh Babu as Chief Revenue Officer, effective January 1, 2020.
With an established career in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector spanning almost 25 years, Babu has held roles at multinational cosmetics, fragrance, and skincare conglomerate Coty and leading global multinational FMCG corporation Procter and Gamble (P&G).
In his capacity as Chief Revenue Officer, Venkatesh will be responsible for all the go-to-market initiatives at Aqilliz across key geographies in the Asia Pacific region, in order to drive long-term growth and scalability.
With two decades of experience at Coty, Babu is a seasoned emerging markets expert with a proven track record in implementing market entry strategies and business development across diverse geographies spanning ten countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. Before Coty, Venkatesh began his professional career at P&G Prestige Beauty (formerly Cosmopolitan Cosmetics) as the Market Development Manager for Russia where he managed the business during the 1998 Russian Crisis, mitigating losses by over 50 per cent.
Super Surfaces raises US$500K funding
Super Surfaces, a design and delivery company that specialises in the luxury wall and surface finishing, has raised US$500,000 from Vishnu Reddy, a serial entrepreneur and an investor based out of Washington DC.
With the funding, Super Surface will scale up and grow its brand.
The company targets to achieve a delivery capacity of 10 lakh sqft per month by March 2023 and is also planning to enter the global market starting with Srilanka and Bangladesh by 2022 and the US and Australia by 2023.
Kumar Varma started his company with the main reason to offer design and delivery solutions of surfaces with primary focus on architects and interior designers. He holds 12-plus years of professional experience in the Amusement & Theme park industry and has worked with many reputed global amusement brands.
OVO launches crowdfunding campaign for flood victims of Greater Jakarta [e27]
Indonesia’s leading fintech firm OVO has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help the victims of the massive floods that devastated parts of Greater Jakarta since last Wednesday.
For aid distribution, OVO has partnered with Grab, Indonesian Red Cross, Baznas, Aksi Cepat Tanggap and Rumah Zakat. Online mutual fund marketplace Bareksa has also expressed its support for this movement as a corporate social responsibility act.
Users can donate by accessing ‘special donations home’ banner on the OVO app. Ride-hailing firm Grab has also pledged to match up to Rp1 billion for the donations thus collected.
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