Author: Asia PEVC

TRENDE selected to join 11 leading edge companies focused on solving the world’s greatest challenges at Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific 2020

Barclays and Unreasonable Group continue commitment to scaling up entrepreneurial solutions helping employ thousands globally while solving some of the world’s most pressing environmental and societal challenges

TRENDE Inc., a renewable energy retailer in Japan, has been selected to join 11 other ground breaking growth stage ventures at the 2020 Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program.

With the global pandemic continuing to have an enormous impact on all aspects of life, including the global workforce, migration, and the environment, supporting entrepreneurial solutions addressing these challenges is critical. Unreasonable Impact, a unique partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group is focused on supporting and scaling up high-growth ventures within the green economy, ensuring that their impactful solutions reach new markets, transform even more lives and create thousands more jobs in the process.

After a rigorous selection process involving hundreds of world-class companies, Jeffrey Char, TRENDE’s co-founder and Chairman, has been invited to join 11 other leading entrepreneurs from across Asia Pacific for the first ever virtual iteration of the Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program, which aims to accelerate the growth of their companies.

Impacting the future of food, energy, sustainable living and supply chains, each entrepreneur is selected to participate based on their potential to address key social and environmental issues and to create at least 500 jobs within the next five years.

The program connects the entrepreneurs to a global community of power-house mentors and industry specialists, including experts from across Barclays through tried and tested methodologies and approaches.

“We founded TRENDE as a response to the climate crisis and the Japan’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Our mission is to accelerate the widespread adoption of renewable energy and redefine the energy ecosystem in Japan,” said Char. “We are excited to join the Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific program and leverage their community to amplify our positive impact.”

Lars Aagaard, Head of M&A and Head of Financial Sponsors, Asia Pacific at Barclays, said, “We are delighted to welcome the latest cohort of ventures onto our first virtual Unreasonable Impact program here in Asia Pacific. Tackling some of today’s greatest challenges, the entrepreneurs are developing groundbreaking solutions and, in partnership with Unreasonable Group, we look forward to supporting them on their journey to scale.”

Daniel Epstein, Founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group, added, “We are committed to the idea that doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive and Unreasonable Impact’s success to date demonstrates the growing appetite for purpose and profit driven businesses. Our now highly curated virtual programs provide a space to share wisdom, build a lasting community of support and deep dive into critical conversations, empowering our entrepreneurs towards transformative impact and growth. We are so excited to welcome TRENDE into our global community and look forward to supporting Jeffrey Char along with our partners Barclays, to scale and in the process accelerate the creation of thousands of new jobs.”

Cumulatively, the twelve ventures have generated more than USD $76.28 million in revenue, raised USD $114.48 million in funding and are operating in 26 countries.

To date, the ventures that comprise the Unreasonable Impact community have positively impacted more than 220 million people, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 55 million tons, and generated more than 37,000 net new jobs. The companies have also raised more than USD $3 billion in funding. TRENDE joins this notable global network in its shared effort to create thousands of jobs on the frontier of the green economy. For more information, visit www.unreasonableimpact.com

The participating companies include:

– Canopy Power: Deploying reliable, renewable electricity supply for remote businesses and communities across Asia Pacific. https://www.canopypower.com/
– DeHaat: Building AI-enabled technologies to revolutionize supply chain and production efficiency in the farm sector. https://agrevolution.in/
– Frontier Markets: Alleviating poverty by investing in rural households, and especially women. https://frontiermkts.com/
– gFlow+: Providing electric, solid-state water meters and smart metering solutions for a more water-efficient future. http://www.gflowplus.com/
– Jumbotail: Organizing the food and grocery ecosystem in India using technology, data science, and design. https://jumbotail.com/
– Maeko: Turning organic waste into fertilizer in just 24 hours with cutting-edge compost machines. https://www.maeko.com.my/
– Mobi-Air: Delivering breakthrough low-energy, low-cost, competitive air filtration technology. https://mobiair.technology/
– MOVUS: Delivering an all-in-one equipment monitoring solution for smarter and more efficient machinery. https://www.movus.com.au/
– Shiok Meats: Transforming the food industry in Asia with cell-based, clean meat and seafood. https://shiokmeats.com/
– TRENDE: Providing Japan affordable, renewable, and local energy through rooftop solar. https://trende.jp/
– Tridi Oasis Group: Recycling locally-sourced plastic waste into high quality raw materials. https://www.tridi-oasis.com/
– TurtleTree Labs: Recreating the full composition, functionality and taste of milk using the latest cutting-edge innovation in biotech. https://turtletreelabs.com/

About TRENDE

TRENDE Inc. is an online renewable energy retailer selling electricity to residential customers in Japan via its Hot Denki (https://hotdenki.jp) and Ashita Denki (https://ashita-denki.jp/) service websites. TRENDE’s mission is to accelerate the widespread adoption of renewable energy and redefine the energy ecosystem in Japan with a customer-centric business model and innovative P2P platform. The company’s investors include Tokyo Electric Power, Itochu, Idemitsu and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. For more information, please visit http://trende.jp/.

About Unreasonable Impact, created with Barclays

Unreasonable Impact is an innovative multi-year multi-geographic partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to launch the world’s first global network focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions that will help employ thousands worldwide in the emerging green economy. To date, the more than 150 ventures that comprise the global cohort operate in more than 180 countries, have raised over $3bn USD in funding, have generated over $2.8bn USD in revenue, and have created more than 37,000 net new jobs since joining Unreasonable Impact. For more information, please visit www.unreasonableimpact.com

About Barclays

Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customer and client, and by geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank. Our purpose is creating opportunities to rise. For over 325 years we have funded progress, and today we remain committed to helping make our world more sustainable, more inclusive and more connected. For further information about Barclays, please visit www.home.barclays.

Barclays in Asia Pacific

Barclays has been in Asia Pacific for over 50 years and primarily supports corporations and financial institutions across the Asia region, catering to their cross-border Corporate and Investment banking needs and connecting them to the capital markets of Europe and the Americas. In Asia Pacific, Barclays International has a presence in Hong Kong/ mainland China, Japan, Singapore, India and Australia.

About Unreasonable Group

Bringing together a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, creatives and business leaders, Unreasonable acts as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges facing us today. From designing highly curated immersive programs, facilitating access to a global network of mentors to operating a private equity fund and providing advanced storytelling and media activities, Unreasonable operates at the highest intersection of business and impact. It is uniquely positioned to support growth stage entrepreneurs solving key global environment and social challenges to scale up through the deployment of knowledge, networks and capital. For more information about Unreasonable, please visit www.unreasonablegroup.com.

Digital Innovation in Accounting and Finance

At the end of a year like no other, on 3-4 November 2020 over 2,000 accounting and finance professionals from across Asia came together virtually at the Accounting & Finance Show Asia to learn, network and discover new digital solutions for their business.

Over the two days 120 expert speakers shared their insights across 5 channels covering digital innovation, digital practice, accounting tech and cash & treasury. Attendees were able to engage live with the speakers and ask questions during the panel discussions and presentations through the event platform’s live discussion feature.

All sessions were screened live and made available on demand, making it easier than ever before for attendees to join all the relevant sessions at their convenience. In total we saw over 16,000 session attendees within just two days.

Our Sponsors showcased a range of innovative digital solutions designed to change the way that accountants and finance professionals work and run their business. Our Sponsors included Xero, Intuit QuickBooks, DocuSign, ApprovalMax, BGL, Fathom, SAP Business ByDesign, Western Union and many more besides. Each of our sponsors shared content, success stories and product demonstrations. Attendees could follow up for more information by visiting each Sponsor’s virtual booth, and each Sponsor could proactively reach out to relevant event attendees.

Our virtual event platform is powered by AI, matching attendees based on their profiles and activity. Attendees and Sponsors were able to connect, message and set up virtual meetings with one another all within the platform. Over 4,000 contacts were made, almost 20,000 discussions created and over 24,400 messages were exchanged on the platform in just two days.

At the Accounting & Finance Show Asia, we drive the adoption of digital tools and technologies in accounting and finance. We look forward to meeting you virtually at our next Accounting & Finance Show Asia event.

If you want to be part of our future events, contact Laura Binns at
laura.binns@terrapinn.com

Shineway Pharmaceutical (2877.HK) recorded 29.4% revenue growth for October 2020

HONG KONG, Nov 30, 2020 – (ACN Newswire) – Shineway Pharmaceutical (stock code: 2877.HK) recorded 29.4% revenue growth for October 2020 in comparison with the same period last year, as sales of injection products, soft capsule products, granule products, TCM formula granules, and other dosage forms went up 38.9%, 17.4%, 38.1%, 7.9% and 54.0% respectively.

NIU Technologies Announced Q3 2020 Financial Results: Revenue up 36.7% YoY, Total Volume of E-scooter Sales up 67.9% YoY

NIU Technologies (“NIU”, or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: NIU), the world’s leading provider of smart urban mobility solutions, announced its financial results for Q3 2020.

Driven by Strong Growth in the China Market, Revenues and E-scooter Sales Volume increased significantly

For Q3 2020, the revenue is RMB 894.5 million, which is an increase of 36.7% YoY. The net income is RMB 80 million for Q3 2020, compared with RMB 66.4 million in Q3 2019. The adjusted net income (non-GAAP) is RMB 90.6 million, compared with RMB 72.5 million in Q3 2019.

Due to strong growth in China, the number of e-scooters sold reached 250,889 units, which is 67.9% YoY. The number of e-scooters sold in China reached 245,293, which is up 70.2% YoY. E-scooter sales revenues from China market is RMB 740.8 million, an increase of 39.2% YoY, which represents 92.6% of total e-scooter revenues. The increase is mainly driven by retail network expansion and new product launches in China. During Q3 2020, the number of franchised stores in China reached 1,266, which is an increase of 182 stores from Q2 2020. In the international market, the number of e-scooters sold reached 5,596 units, which is up 6.3% YoY. Due to the higher average sales price in the international markets, e-scooter sales revenues from international markets is RMB 59.6 million, represented an increase of 35.2% YoY. The international sales network now expanded to 36 distributors covering 46 countries.

Accessories, spare part sales and services reached a revenue of RMB 94.1 million, an increase of 20.2% YoY and represented 10.5% of the total revenue. This increase is mainly due to higher sales from China market. Gross margin declined from 22.2% to 20.9% in Q3 2020 compared with Q3 2019, which is mainly due to sales discount and high sales volume of G0 model that has a lower gross margin.

Additional Expansion of Product Portfolio and International Sales Network

NIU continued its focus on new products development in Q3 2020. R&D expenses is RMB 28.9 million (including RMB 3.0 million of share-based compensation) in Q3 2020, which is an increase of 69.4% from RMB 17.1 million in Q3 2019.

Meanwhile, NIU also has been expanding into new international markets and will continue to advance its global strategy. NIU CEO Dr. Yan Li commented: “Southeast Asia will become an important market for NIU in Q4 2020. In Q4 2020, we plan to launch our new Gova product in Indonesia market. The marketing campaign and pre-sales will start from December 2020.”

In October 2020, the number of e-scooters sold in the international markets reached 2,275, which represents an 83.9% YoY growth. In November 2020, sales volume for the first 19 days has surpassed the total sales volume for the entire month of November 2019. NIU expects revenues of the Q4 2020 to be in the range of RMB 565 million to RMB 615 million, which represents YoY increase from 5% to 15%.

Dr. Yan Li commented: “We are very pleased to see the strong sales growth in China during Q3 2020. Although our international sales were affected by rebound of COVID-19 in Q3 2020, we are working closely with our international distributors to mitigate the impact to bring our sales back to fast growth. With the continued cost optimization efforts, we expect our gross margin to improve. For the Indonesia market, we are very excited about the growth prospective and plan to expand our product portfolio and retail sales network in the next few years.”

DETAK by Brawijaya University Researchers detects Heart Disease Early and Accurately

Researchers from the Brawijaya University (UB) Medical School in Malang, East Java have developed DETAK, a smartphone application for patients with heart disease. The app works on an AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm, to provide early and accurate detection of heart disease, or acute coronary syndrome, and prevent delays in proper diagnose and treatment.

Acute coronary syndrome describes a host of conditions linked to the sudden, reduced flow of blood to the heart. One such condition is a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which cell death results and can lead to damaged or destroyed heart tissue. DETAK was designed to prevent these types of occurrences with early discovery.

“Apart from functioning as an early detection tool encouraging patients to seek treatment, DETAK serves to remind heart disease patients to take their medication and undergo medical checkups regularly,” noted Mohammad Saifur Rohman, the lead researcher of cardiovascular study at the UB Medical School. The application also offers informative articles on heart disease and advice for maintaining a healthy heart.

Rohman drew attention to the importance of the early detection service in the application, since delay in the detection of heart disease is a main causal factors in the high number of heart attack cases resulting in death, citing data from the Dr. Saiful Anwar Hospital in Malang. He attributed this delay in detection mostly to a lack of knowledge and awareness of the symptoms of acute coronary syndrome.

For early detection of the ailment, patients using the DETAK app answer several questions related to chest pain they experience and will be notified on where to go to seek help. The app will direct users with high risk of acute coronary syndrome to hospitals with cardiologists on duty, while those with low risk of acute coronary syndrome will be directed to visit nearby health facilities with general practitioners on duty.

The DETAK application has already received the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI) award, and will soon cover health facilities across Indonesia, with data collection in collaboration with the Indonesian Cardiologist Association (PERKI), Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) and other related facilities.

For further information, contact:
Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Public Relations
www.ub.ac.id and www.prasetya.ub.ac.id.

Women Icons Network, Myanmar Coalition sign pact to enhance social conversations around workplace gender equality

Singapore headquartered, Women Icons Network (WIN), a platform that captures the value of gender-balanced workplaces by engaging women, corporates and D&I professionals, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Myanmar Business Coalition for Gender Equality (BCGE). Under the terms of the MoU signed on November 5, 2020, WIN and BCGE will work towards increasing commitment and social conversations around gender equality at the workplace.

BCGE is a non-profit association that encourages businesses to initiate gender equality practices in the workplace. The association and its member firms have made considerable progress towards creating gender-equal places of work. WIN is a technologically powered, globally scalable online platform that amplifies the voices of women at the workplace and also enables them to share their experiences.

“We are excited to welcome Women Icons Network (WIN) as our latest partner. The collaboration will not only help us highlight the tremendous work done by our member firms but also roll-out mentorship programs that address the gaps essential to building an inclusive leadership,” said Ms Kyawt Kay Thi Win, Country Director, BCGE

Mr Vishwesh Iyer, Co-founder, WIN, believes that all those working towards ensuring gender equal workplaces need to make a collective effort that augments individual strengths if we as a society are serious about SDG 5 Goals.

About Women Icons Network

Women Icons Network (WIN) is an engagement and data aggregation platform that captures the value of gender equal places of work across South and South East Asia. Integrating workplace feedback and published data on companies to create a Diversity Metric that differentiates places of work around gender equality, the platform will amplify the efforts of all stakeholders operating the area of diversity and inclusion.

WIN, headquartered in Singapore, is promoted by two experienced professionals and supported by hundreds of women leaders across South and South East Asia.

About Business Coalition for Gender Equality

The Business Coalition for Gender Equality (BCGE) is a non-profit association and also a coalition of companies that are committed to promoting gender equality in the workplace in Myanmar.

Our association is led and founded by seven leading businesses in Myanmar – City Mart Holding Limited (CMHL), KBZ Bank, KBZ MS, AYA Bank, FMI, Parami Energy Group of Companies, and Shwe Taung Group – that have all committed to achieve organizational growth and global sustainable development goals through workplace gender equality initiatives.

BCGE encourages all companies and organizations in the commercial sector to initiate workplace gender equality practices and serves as a center of excellence to support their journey.

Contact for Media queries

Vishwesh Iyer
vishwesh@womeniconsnetwork.com
+65 – 91018487

APEX Network and Red Pulse Phoenix to Merge and Develop Horizon DeFi Platform

After months of meticulous planning and discussion, the blockchain projects APEX Network and Red Pulse Phoenix have made a strategic maneuver to combine their platforms and ecosystems through a merger that will create a comprehensive enterprise data blockchain platform.

The merger creates a larger, more powerful infrastructure and ecosystem, effectively leveraging the best resources both companies have to offer (technology, platforms, token economics, liquidity, human talent, investor base, and marketing). This is the first notable instance of a token merger.

The combined entity will become Phoenix Global. APEX Network token holders will be granted Phoenix tokens at a ratio calculated based on moving average price, with the swap already executed as of early November, and the Phoenix Global merged token trading on major exchanges such as Binance. The Phoenix Global community will have a reach of over 60,000 individuals through social media and over 100,000 through mailing list subscriptions.

Phoenix Global has announced a new Defi platform called Horizon, an on-chain DeFi platform for exposure to real-world assets. Phoenix Horizon is a unique, differentiated DeFi platform focused on the real economy and enterprise ecosystem, and will enable crypto-users to participate in an array of DeFi use cases outside of the traditional DeFi scenarios, at the same time reaping rewards for contribution to use cases that provide real-world value.

At the core of the Horizon platform will be a synthetic assets platform that will make a variety of financial instruments, economic indices, intangible assets, and data to be able to be traded on-chain. Horizon will have a close working relationship and tie the platform in with the Binance ecosystem and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

For more information on Phoenix Global, please visit www.phoenix.global or email support@phoenix.global.

ATF Online+ Announces Full Event Line-up

Mornings with Industry Leaders
Mornings with Industry Leaders: Adam Lewinson, Dr Michael Gryseels, Archana Anand, Jon Penn, Jimin Fang, Priya Dogra and Jacques du Puy (L-R)

Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) 2020 returns in less than a week with a jam-packed schedule tailored for the online audience.

Charging forward into 2021 and into the realm of content connectivity, commerce and beyond, the programme line-up will see industry leaders discuss and provide insights on a range of topics from digital transformation to partnership announcements and an exclusive look at how China’s Film & TV Industry has developed in 2020 with a 2021 forecast.

Leading the line-up are key Asian brands at the forefront of digital innovation and adoption. Dr Michael Gryseels, President of True Digital Group from Thailand and Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer of Zee5 will expound on the significance of sustainable models and investments in the digital economy while industry heavyweights such as WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks who are also doubling down on digital transformation efforts will be sharing strategies for manoeuvring the challenges in the year ahead.

At the forefront of partnerships in the new world, a panel discussion will see the Singapore Tourism Board, Studio Dragon and iQIYI come together to provide insights and share more about their latest partnership to promote the Destination Singapore story. Studio Dragon is best known for the popular drama series “Crash Landing on You”, while NASDAQ-listed iQIYI is a streaming giant from China, with over 500 million monthly active users.

Yeow Hui Leng, Group Project Director of ATF says “Digital convergence and COVID-19 have changed the way content is consumed, and they have also inspired new ways of collaborating and story-telling. This 21st edition of ATF underlines its coming of age in a new era and we look forward to facilitating conversations and connections, as we head into 2021.”

Grooming and discovering talents through In Development program

ATF has always been about providing talents, creators, and producers with a platform to launch their ideas further for development. This year, the intention is to offer an accelerated approach to content discovery and development regionally and globally through the ATF In Development program.

The In Development component comprises of its pitches and Speed Dating Program for co-production and commissioning. Producers and creators alike will be given the opportunity to pitch their projects to key decision-makers who include commissioning editors, distributors, co-producers, investors, and talent agencies.

Following are the commissioners taking part:

  • Justin Deimen of 108 Media (Animation / Format / Drama)
  • Agathe Vinson of Film Development Council of the Philippines and Mil Alcain of Film Philippines Incentives (Animation / Format / Drama / All Genres)
  • Chelsea Yang of Hunan TV (Format)
  • Chenfei Zhu of IQIYI, Inc (Animation)
  • Janet Zhang and Lulu Zhao of IQIYI Kids & Family (Animation)
  • Brenda Bisner of Kidoodle.tv (Animation)
  • Jesslyn Wong and Doreen Neo of MediaCorp (Drama)
  • Ray Wang and Cici Zheng of Reesee Entertainment (Animation)
  • Qing Fan of Tencent Video (Animation)
  • Richard Rowe of WildBrain (Animation)
  • Danna Stern, Tal Amram and Maya Biton of Yes Studios (Drama)

The pitches have proven to be an effective platform to spot ideas and nurture young talents from the Asian region. The ATF Formats Pitch calls for new and exciting originals from unscripted (non-fiction) entertainment formats. Lending a critical eye to the judging panel this year are industry heavyweights from 108 Media, Nippon TV, ITV studios, MongolTV and The Format People.

The ATF Animation Pitch calls for the most original, creative animated programs with edutainment value for the children in our lives within Asia. This year, experts from Kidoodle.tv, Toonz Animation India, Warnermedia Entertainment Networks and WEKIDS are part of the judging panel that will decide on the winner.

“The competition was tough, but we are so grateful that the experts recognised the potential for Weatherville and our network of other Southeast Asian creatives and developers have grown exponentially. With that, the potential to take the show to the markets have increased as well,” said Diana Yurinova, VP, International business development and distribution of Riki Group, winner of ATF Animation Pitch 2019.

The Chinese Pitch, which calls for original innovations in movie or drama formats that appeals to Chinese-speaking territories, is currently going through the judging process.

Winners of the pitches will be announced at ATF. ATF Online+ takes place from 1 to 4 December 2020, with on demand available up till 28 February 2021. ATF Online+ is part of the Singapore Media Festival (SMF). For more information, please visit www.asiatvforum.com.

Industry luminaries who will be speaking at ATF: http://www.acnnewswire.com/clientreports/5349/Annex.pdf

About Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) 2020

Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) – the region’s leading entertainment content event – is the platform of calibre to acquire knowledge, network, buy, sell, finance, distribute and co-produce across all platforms. It is the premier stage in Asia to engage with the entertainment industry’s top players from around the world. It’s where the best minds meet and the future of Asia’s content is shaped.

ATF facilitates opportunities to discover vital trends, crucial statistics and significant foresight particularly in TV’s digital, kids and formats arenas. Its business match-making programme open doors to new connections in the region. With over 5,700 international buyers and sellers from more than 60 countries and regions, ATF presents valuable business prospects for top-of-the-line benefits. For more information, please visit www.asiatvforum.com

About ScreenSingapore 2020

ScreenSingapore – Southeast Asia’s definitive marketplace for filmmakers, producers, distributors, financiers and film buyers to explore co-production opportunities, seek financing, make deals and learn about the changing film landscape.

In 2020, ScreenSingapore will once again host the Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market and Conference, in partnership with the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA) and Ties That Bind: Asia/Europe Producers Workshop (TTB) to connect promising filmmakers and producers from Southeast Asia and Europe with international coproducing partners, festival programmers, distributors, commissioners, and financiers. For more information, please visit www.screensingapore.com.sg

About Reed Exhibitions (RX)

Reed Exhibitions is a leading global event organiser, with more than 500 events in 30 countries. In 2019, Reed Exhibitions brought together more than 7m event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed Exhibitions’ events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 38 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit www.reedexpo.com

About the Singapore Media Festival (SMF)

The Singapore Media Festival, hosted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, is one of Asia’s leading international media events, where the industry meets to discover the latest trends, talents and content in Asia for film, TV and digital media. Taking place from 26 November to 6 December 2020, the Singapore Media Festival brings together the Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA), Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) and ScreenSingapore, and Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). SuperGamerFest will also be held in conjunction with SMF. For more information about the Singapore Media Festival, please visit www.imda.gov.sg/sgmediafest.

Press Contact
Ninemer Public Relations
Danielle Loh
Senior Account Manager
T: +65 9176 7502
E: danielleloh@ninemer.com

Janice Chew
Account Manager
T: +65 9685 7508
E: janicechew@ninemer.com

AppsFlyer Launches 19th Global Office in Sydney to Tap on ANZ’s AUD7.79 Billion Mobile Marketing Potential and Thriving Local App Industry

– AppsFlyer opens its first ANZ office to support the increasing need for intelligent measurement in the region
– Follows AppsFlyer’s landmark milestone announcement that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has exceeded AUD273 million on; with Salesforce Ventures joining its roster of investors
– AppsFlyer’s “State of App Marketing in ANZ” report reveals plenty of room for domestic apps to flourish, with ANZ seeing strong growth potential in apps in the Lifestyle (20%), Travel (16%), and Health & Fitness (13%)

AppsFlyer, the global attribution and marketing analytics leader, today announced its official expansion into Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) with its first office opening in Sydney – making this its 19th office worldwide. AppsFlyer counts design giant Canva, neobank 86:400, and fitness app Sweat by Kayla among its current roster of ANZ clients. This follows AppsFlyer’s recent announcement that Salesforce Ventures has joined its roster of investors in a late stage extension of its AUD287 million Series D round, which was led by General Atlantic earlier this year. The company now exceeds AUD273 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with over 1,000 employees globally.

By launching in ANZ, AppsFlyer hopes to support the region’s rapidly growing local app economy by capitalising on the region’s mobile marketing spend, which is expected to grow to up to AUD7.79 billion by 2021. According to AppsFlyer’s first App Marketing in Australia and New Zealand 2020 report, although domestic apps currently occupy only 4% of the total ANZ app market share – with the US and China dominating at 29% and 12% respectively – growth potential for local apps is seen particularly in the verticals of Lifestyle (20%), Travel (16%), and Health & Fitness (13%).

This is especially relevant today when app usage is on the rise in ANZ; the same AppsFlyer report showed that Finance apps grew by 175%, Shopping apps by 125%, and Health & Fitness apps by 86% in H1 2020 vs H1 2019 for non-organic installs (NOI).

Under the leadership of Antony Wilcox, Director of Growth, AppsFlyer is looking to pursue vast growth opportunities in the region’s mobile marketing and analytics industry, provide a platform to better serve app marketers in understanding customer data, and accelerate their mobile marketing efforts. The opening of a physical office in the middle of a pandemic, further shows AppsFlyer’s commitment to the region, and its focus on servicing customers and growing its business further.

Antony Wilcox, Director of Growth, Australia and New Zealand, AppsFlyer, states: “Australia and New Zealand’s move into the mobile generation is happening right now. We’ve seen homegrown start-ups move from seed rounds to a string of IPO’s and have now become global players in Fintech, Retail Tech, and Productivity categories. AppsFlyer serves as the bridge between the mobile web and the app ecosystem, and we are currently building out our integrations with Cloud Marketing partners to bring all the value of the Martech ecosystem into one platform for marketers.”

Ronen Mense, President and Managing Director for APAC, AppsFlyer, says: “We are immensely proud to be able to expand physically into Australia and New Zealand during a pandemic. Globally, many businesses have accelerated their digital transformation as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19, with mobile taking front and center stage in their strategic focus. We see an opportunity here to not only better support our existing customers in the region, but also to help empower the greater ANZ business community with our mission-critical tools and industry expertise so they can get the most out of their mobile marketing potential.”

Ecosystem shifts and digital transformation accelerated by COVID-19 have fuelled the growth of AppsFlyer’s ground-breaking solutions to meet the needs of marketers and app developers. These include innovative, privacy-centric attribution solutions for iOS 14, in a post-IDFA world; App Clips analytics; a zero budget marketing plan for app developers; enabling the web campaign-to-app opportunity; and two brand new products: Xpend – a cost aggregation solution that extracts cost data from any source, and accurately calculates ROI across the entire marketing journey, and Incrementality – which helps brands test and prove incremental lift of their marketing campaigns.

Globally, AppsFlyer works with thousands of customers, including leading brands such as Macy’s, Minecraft, Nike, NBC Universal, Tencent, US Bank, Wayfair, and StitchFix. AppsFlyer’s marketplace of over 8,000 partners includes Facebook, Google, Apple Search Ads, Twitter, TikTok Ads, Pinterest, Snap, Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle. AppsFlyer was recently named to the Forbes 2020 Cloud 100 list for the 2nd year in a row.

Existing investors include General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs Growth, DTCP (Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Qumra Capital, Pitango Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, and Eight Roads Ventures.

App Marketing in Australia and New Zealand 2020 report highlights:

The AppsFlyer App Marketing in Australia and New Zealand 2020 report examines 120 million installs, covering 12,500 apps downloaded between January to June 2020 in Australia and New Zealand. The report was done across eight verticals including Entertainment, Shopping, Gaming, Health & Fitness, Finance, Utilities, Travel and Lifestyle. The dataset in the report has also been compared against H1 2020 global data and H1 2019 Australia and New Zealand data.

– Finance – Non-organic installs (installs as a result of paid marketing activity), nearly tripled (175%) in comparison to H1 2019.

– Fraud – Overall fraud in ANZ grew to 14.94% by June 2020, doubling from 7.9% in February 2020. With Shopping and Finance apps being widely utilised, marketers were sinking more advertising spend, which in-end targeted fraudsters. Over 50% of apps expected to generate fake attributions.

– Travel – New Zealanders tended to over-index on Travel app NOI at 21% (enjoying the second-highest share behind just New South Wales, 26%). Marketers might therefore find a measure of solace in this finding by boosting their spending in New Zealand.

– Health and Fitness – With gyms and stores closed, health and fitness apps grew in H1 2020 by 86% and shopping apps grew by 125%, as people were seeking alternatives.

– User Acquisition – January showed to be a great month for marketers to invest in, benefitting from extended holiday spending, with user acquisition in January proving to be at lower costs.
— Cost per installs grew during March, April, and May months as COVID-related NOI and Organic Install spikes
— Entertainment (1.65 in May 2020 from 1.39 in January 2020),
— Lifestyle (1.7 in May 2020 from 1.2 in January 2020) and
— Shopping (3.17 in May 2020 from 2.4 in January 2020) apps
— Revenue and App Opens also peaked in January as Health & Fitness (17%), Lifestyle (20%) and Travel (25%) apps peaked, gaming and utilities apps also grew

AppsFlyer was founded in Israel in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, by Oren Kaniel, current CEO, and CTO Reshef Mann. Globally, the company works with more than 12,000 customers including leading brands like HBO, Alibaba, Skyscanner, and is currently located in 19 global offices. AppsFlyer works with data-driven marketers for independent measurement solutions and innovative tools to grow and protect their mobile business. AppsFlyer’s platform processes billions of mobile actions every day, empowering marketers and developers to maximize the return on their marketing investments.

App Marketing in Australia and New Zealand 2020 report is available at https://www.appsflyer.com/resources/others/app-marketing-australia-new-zealand/

About AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer, the global attribution leader, empowers marketers to grow their business and innovate with a suite of comprehensive measurement and analytics solutions. Built around privacy by design, AppsFlyer takes a customer-centric approach to help 12,000+ brands and 7,000+ technology partners make better business decisions every day. To learn more, visit www.appsflyer.com

Media Contacts
Debbie Beins
PRecious Communications on behalf of AppsFlyer
appsflyer@preciouscomms.com
+65 6303 0567

Press Contact For AppsFlyer in APAC:
Nico Marco
nico.marco@appsflyer.com

Blockpass Supports Permissionless DeFi Protocol UniLend Fundraiser with KYC & AML Screening

Blockpass today announced a successful working partnership with UniLend, the decentralised finance (DeFi) platform. UniLend recently conducted a successful fundraiser, with Blockpass providing the requisite KYC and AML provision in order to meet regulatory compliance. By handling the compliance measures, the UniLend team were able to focus their efforts on the actual fundraising process.

UniLend is a permissionless decentralized protocol that combines spot trading services and money markets with lending and services through smart contracts. The integrated smart contract for both features of the protocol allows both trading & DeFi capabilities to co-exist within the same protocol, solving the liquidity and liquidation issue which has been limiting the growth of DeFi adoption to a broader market.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider which provides a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. From the Blockpass Mobile App, users can create, store, and manage a data-secure digital identity that can be used for an entire ecosystem of services, token purchases and access to regulated industry. For businesses and merchants, Blockpass is a comprehensive KYC & AML SaaS that requires no integration and no setup cost. You can set up a service in minutes, test the service for free and start verifying and on-boarding users.

“We are seeing a huge rise in DeFi applications as more and more people begin to realise the amazing potential it holds,” said Adam Vaziri, Blockpass CEO. “It is a real pleasure to be working with UniLend as they facilitate the growth and development of DeFi and support its move towards mainstream markets. It has been a great test of our KYC and AML provision and we look forward to continuing working closely with them in the future.”

“Working with Blockpass we KYC verified 1,000 people in a 48 hour period. They took care of everything so we could concentrate on our fundraise. Their team were fully committed to our success and it was a pleasure to work with them,” said UniLend Co-Founder and CEO, Chandresh Aharwar. “They covered everything we needed with instant KYC/AML checks and a dashboard where we could review the data. What is best is the no set up time we needed to add Blockpass – just create an account and get going. Can’t recommend their service enough.”

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of companies it has partnered with, and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. Blockpass has seen rapidly increasing numbers of users in the past year as its identity verification solution is used for ICOs, STOs and IEOs, including supporting a number of successful fundraisers in the past few months.

With a current 90%+ discount on its services, a fact made possible due to the unique reusable nature of its verification method and put in place to help as many people as possible access KYC in the current pandemic, there has never been a better time to explore the potential of Blockpass. The Blockpass App is available from the App Store and Google Play.

About Blockpass
Blockpass is a fast, fully comprehensive KYC & AML screening software-as-a-service for Crypto, Defi and other regulated industries. With Blockpass, you get an unmatched set of benefits for any compliance service that includes pay-as-you-go, no setup cost, no integration necessary, free testing, immediate launch and at the lowest cost. Blockpass’ KYC Connect(TM) platform enables businesses to select requirements for customer onboarding that can include ID authentication, face-matching, address checking, AML ongoing monitoring and/or screening of sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media. Through Blockpass, end-users easily create a verified portable identity that they can control and re-use to onboard with any service instantly.

For more information and updates, please visit and sign up to the following:
Promotional video: https://youtu.be/SvO2cw3e-SI
Website: http://www.blockpass.org
Email: sales@blockpass.org

About UniLend
UniLend is a permission-less DeFi protocol that combines spot trading services and lending/borrowing functionality within the same platform. While current DeFi protocols support only ~30 assets, anyone can list any ERC20 asset on UniLend for decentralized trading and lending/borrowing.

This leads to a huge demand for a protocol that supports a wide number of assets in a decentralized and permission-less way. UniLend is designed to address this untapped market and fuel the blockchain ecosystem by opening up the DeFi Space for all tokens.