AI-powered voice customer service Observe.AI secures US$26M funding [Press Release]
Observe.AI, the AI-powered agent enablement for voice customer service, announces that it has raised US$26 million Series A funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, 01 Advisors, and Emergent Ventures. This funding allows Observe.AI to expand its US-India team globally and accelerate product development.
In conjunction with the funding, Andy Vitus, partner at Scale, will be joining Observe.AI’s board. This brings the company’s total funding to US$34 million.
“Legacy speech analytics systems are simply not meeting the needs of the world’s top brands,” said Swapnil Jain, CEO, and co-founder of Observe.AI. “Today’s customer service agents have a unique ability to emotionally connect with customers and are often a brand’s only frontline representatives. This investment will fuel our mission to elevate agent performance through AI-based coaching and insights.“
Observe.AI uses the latest speech, natural language processing, and deep learning technologies to analyse 100 per cent of customer conversations and provide adaptive coaching, including completely automating some parts of the quality assurance and compliance tracking processes. The platform becomes smarter with each call analysis.
Observe.AI also announced that it has been accepted into the Microsoft for Startups program. With this relationship, Microsoft customers can leverage Observe.AI’s platform through its Azure marketplace.
Bio startup Aprogen just became South Korea’s 11th unicorn [Korea Herald]
South Korean bio venture firm Aprogen Pharmaceuticals Inc. has just been listed as the country’s 11th unicorn, according to an industry tracker on Tuesday.
Also Read: Meet the 8 Southeast Asian startups who will receive US$1-2M each from Sequoia’s Surge programme
With a valuation of more than US$1 billion as recorded by tech market intelligence platform CB Insights, the latest investment it secured was back in May. Aprogen received US$16.7 million in investment from venture capital firm Lindeman Asia Investment.
Aprogen is a venture enterprise founded with proprietary technologies in antibody engineering and recombinant protein engineering. It was founded by a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and has since established several cell lines for blockbuster biosimilars, including Remicade and Herceptin.
It also started the clinical development of multiple biosimilar products in Japan through an alliance with Nichi-Iko Pharmaceuticals Co.
South Korea ranks fifth in a global unicorn tally, with a combined 11 unicorns, including online retailer Coupang and Viva Republica, the operator of easy mobile remittance service Toss.
Techstars appoints Eunse Lee as Managing Director of Techstars Korea [Press Release]
The accelerator program Techstars announces the appointment of Eunsee Lee as its Techstar Korea’s managing director.
Lee had a three years stint in Los Angeles serving as a Founding Managing Partner at ELEVEN:ZULU Capital before returning to Korea in 2018 and taking a role as Managing Director of BEYOND STARTUP, a startup incubator in Seoul under the Seoul Business Agency.
Lee was also the founder of EICG, a boutique strategy, and consultancy agency.
In Techstars’ first-ever accelerator program in Korea, Lee will oversee the supporting and nourishing of the local startup ecosystem in Pangyo, Korea.
Lee stated that he will focus on three categories that startups may fall into during the application process, which are Enterprise Tech, Human-Device Interaction, and Lifestyle Tech.
The accelerator program itself will be hosted at the Pangyo Techno Valley campus (PTV), a business and innovation hub, known locally as the Silicon Valley of Korea. Techstars Korea is accepting applications through March 1st, and the program will run June 2020 through September 2020.
Good Doctor, Grab launch GrabHealth Powered by Good Doctor to open access to quality healthcare [Press Release]
Good Doctor Technology Indonesia, a health technology-based company, and Grab, announced the launch of a one-stop online health care solution within the Grab platform called GrabHealth, powered by Good Doctor.
GrabHealth powered by Good Doctor will be a one-stop medical health solution providing online health chat with a professional medical doctor, e-commerce for Health & Wellness products, and health, wellness, and lifestyle articles curated by medical doctors. Indonesia is the first market that Grab is launching digital healthcare services on its app.
Also Read: Singaporean biotech startup Curiox receives US$15M investment, planning Korean IPO
Dr. Adhiatma Gunawan, Head of Medical Management of Good Doctor Technology Indonesia, said, “Good Doctor Technology Indonesia has a vision of One Doctor for Every Family in Indonesia. This partnership with Grab is a breakthrough collaboration that will allow us to provide access to quality healthcare services provided by reliable healthcare professionals and facilities to Indonesian families across the nation.”
The move is a part of Softbank US$2 billion investment to Indonesia that was announced during a visit to President Joko Widodo last July.
Currently, GrabHealth powered by Good Doctor service is only available for all Grab users within the Greater Jakarta area (Jabodetabek). However, this service will also be widely released to other regions in Indonesia will soon follow.
TikTok’s creator tests out new music app in Indonesia, India [Tech In Asia]
Bytedance, the Chinese internet titan, reportedly has begun testing a new music app in India and Indonesia, with hopes to replicate the success of its short-video app TikTok.
The new app, called Resso, has been launched since six months ago and in its beta-testing phase, Bloomberg reported, citing numbers from Sensor Tower. The data also showed that the app began gaining traction during the end of November.
Earlier, it was reported that Bytedance was set to take on the likes of Spotify and Apple Music with its own music-streaming service, with planned initial launches in Indonesia, India, and Brazil.
What differentiates Resso is that it displays real-time lyrics and allows users to post comments on individual songs. Borrowing features from TikTok, users are able to generate music-accompanied GIFs and videos.
Resso offers a monthly subscription service, which costs the same as Spotify’s US$1.70 offer in India. With a subscription, Resso users can download songs for offline consumption and listen to music ad-free.
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Picture credit: Observe.AI
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