WeWork plans to lay off 4,000 staff [Reuters]
Office-sharing startup WeWork is planning to cut as many as 4,000 jobs as a part of a turnaround plan put in place by top shareholder Japan’s SoftBank Group after it took control of the company this week, Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The job cut will amount to just under a third of WeWork’s global workforce, and about 1,000 of the cuts will hit employees such as janitorial staff, the report said, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
SoftBank agreed to spend more than $10 billion to take over WeWork on Tuesday, giving a near US$1.7 billion payoff to the startup’s co-founder Adam Neumann to relinquish control.
New Gojek co-CEO says dual listing likely but no immediate IPO plans [DealStreetAsia]
Indonesian unicorn Gojek’s new joint chief executive officer Andre Soelistyo on Thursday said the ride-hailing and payments major is likely to go for a dual listing, with the IDX as its primary destination.
He declined to divulge the second destination where the company could list its shares. Addressing a media briefing in Jakarta, the former Gojek group president said the company had no immediate plans to tap the public markets.
“It’s fair to say that the [Indonesia stock] market is not well educated yet. Knowing that, if we can deliver on our mission of covering a larger part of the economy and building sizeable business opportunities, that’s comparable to some of the larger conglomerates in Indonesia such as Astra and BCA and some of the big banks,” Soelistyo said.
Visa and Revolut launches multi-currency debit card [press release]
Visa and Revolut have launched a multi-currency travel debit card that allows Singapore consumers to spend overseas in over 150 currencies at the real exchange rate without hidden fees.
Findings from a YouGov survey commissioned by Visa revealed that Singaporeans are receptive towards neobanks and have expressed strong interest in such a debit product.
Quote attributed to Kunal Chatterjee, Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei.
“Revolut is the first neobank that Visa is partnering in Singapore to issue a multi-currency travel debit card. Based on a research that we conducted on Singaporeans, more than 70 per cent of millennials are keen to sign up for a multi-currency travel product offered by a neobank. In fact, Singaporeans are most concerned about not getting the best exchange rates when they visit a money changer, so it is not surprising that close to 80 per cent of millennials say they would change less money and use this multi travel currency card when travelling. As we progress into a more digital society, consumers expect to lead a digital lifestyle and make payments seamlessly when they travel without worrying about carrying too much cash.”
AI startup Crediwatch raises US$3.2M [press release]
Crediwatch, a Bangalore-based techfin company building AI/ML tools to help the financial services industry reduce credit risk, has secured US$3.2 million in Series A funding, led by ARTIS Labs. Abstract Ventures also participated.
The funding will accelerate R&D and commercialisation of Crediwatch’s platform.
Prior to this round, Crediwatch has raised US$1.6 million.
Crediwatch is a ‘data insights-as-a-service’ company that provides lenders, businesses with actionable credit intelligence on private entities they need to improve trust and increase their lending and trading activity. Crediwatch does this with no human intervention by deploying the latest practical AI and technology tools that provide the most reliable comprehensive real-time inputs.
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