Singapore – Southeast Asian online used car platform Carro has tapped into HSBC’s recently launched US$1 billion ASEAN Growth Fund, being the first of the bank’s clients to do so.
Going into detail, Carro signed a US$75m multi-currency loan to fund the growth of its fintech arm, Genie Financial Services.
This signifies Carro’s efforts to strengthen its presence within the fintech space, with its Genie Financial Services also receiving funding from DRB-HICOM to unlock valuable cross-selling opportunities for DRB-HICOM within Carro’s used car platform myTukar’s dealer network, comprising over 2,600 dealers nationwide.
Talking about the initiative, Aaron Tan, co-founder and CEO of Carro, said, “HSBC has been a very supportive partner and one of very few banks who recognise the need to support regional start-ups like us to achieve sustainable profitable growth.”
“Our fintech business, leveraging proprietary data-driven lending, has been growing prudently with a loan book exceeding US$500 million and NPL below 0.5%. Securing this landmark financing from HSBC is a huge validation of our digital ecosystem-led business model. This enables us to serve the underserved consumer segment even better,” he added.
Meanwhile, Amanda Murphy, head of commercial banking, South and Southeast Asia, HSBC, commented, “HSBC has a proud history and strong heritage in ASEAN of supporting entrepreneurs and scaling up businesses. We are delighted to arrange a multi-currency loan facility for Carro, through our unique US$1 billion ASEAN Growth Fund, as they grow their operations.”
Tag: Investment
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – China’s ByteDance, the parent firm of the social media app TikTok, intends to invest around 10 billion ringgit (US$2.13b) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) hub in Malaysia. As part of the agreement, ByteDance will also invest 1.5 billion ringgit to develop its data centre facilities in Malaysia’s Johor state. This is also part of the company’s several goals of expanding its IT services into Southeast Asia.
Speaking about the investment, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Trade and Industry Minister, said, “This additional investment by ByteDance will undoubtedly help Malaysia achieve its target of growing the digital economy to 22.6% of Malaysia’s gross domestic product by 2025.”
In line with investments to develop artificial intelligence in Malaysia, Microsoft recently invested US$2.2b to develop Malaysia as a hub for cloud computing and related technologies like generative AI. Through the investment, Malaysia is set to become a hub for cloud computing and related technologies like generative AI. It will also help Malaysia to capitalise on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by AI technology.
Meanwhile, TikTok also recently launched new business solutions to enable businesses to explore new ground on TikTok, such as a new suite of creative AI tools, performance and measurement solutions, and improvements to high-impact branding placements. In line with the expanded commercial solutions, TikTok also established the ‘TikTok Media Buying Certification’ program to help businesses choose the ideal partner to power their TikTok campaigns. This global accreditation allows digital marketers to demonstrate and authenticate their TikTok advertising experience while also strengthening advertisers’ networks of trustworthy TikTok partners.
Furthermore, Tiktok has established a new leadership development program called ‘TikTok Academy: Elevate’ in Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The programme provides challenges for participants to complete, with the goal of either encapsulating the session’s theme or leveraging participants’ strengths, enhancing their understanding of the evolving marketing landscape, emerging platforms such as TikTok for advertising and marketing, and providing space for self-reflection on their career growth.
Hong Kong – Putting its customers at the forefront, Watsons, the flagship health and beauty brand of AS Watson Group, has committed US$250 million to opening and upgrading 6,000 stores across Asia over the next two years.
Watsons’ investment will enhance over 2,200 O+O (offline plus online) stores across 15 markets in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The company aims to have more than 3,800 newly opened and upgraded O+O stores by the end of 2024.
According to Malina Ngai, group CEO of AS Watson, “As the leading health and beauty retailer in Asia, we’re committed to offering our customers the highest quality range of products at great value, as well as providing them with a very pleasant shopping experience. We constantly hear from our customers about where we can improve, and we work closely with key brands to improve category-specific experiences.”
“Watsons has been at the forefront of revolutionising the in-store environment for customers, and over these two years, we are investing USD 250 million in new store openings and upgrading existing stores across our 15 operating markets. We are opening over 1,200 new stores in 2023–24 and investing in refitting approximately 4,800 stores in the same period. This means 75% of the store portfolio in Asia will provide a more innovative and upgraded experience for our customers,” she added.
The new and upgraded Watsons stores have been designed to appeal to modern beauty lovers seeking a more exciting shopping experience.
Recently, Watsons China unveiled ‘Watsons Pink’, featuring a striking pink colour theme throughout the store’s interior, designed to attract and engage young customers. The stores also offer spa services, providing a relaxing experience that allows shoppers to indulge and pamper themselves while they shop.
Additionally, Watsons China has launched a ‘Beauty Playground’ zone in its new concept stores. This innovative area provides a chic, experience-driven makeup space where customers can access professional makeup artists for personalised advice and expertise. It also offers the opportunity to experiment with various looks and explore a wide range of colour cosmetics.
Meanwhile, Watsons Taiwan has reimagined its stores into an aesthetically pleasing space ideal for social media. The chic makeup zone features a lipstick-shaped makeup table and a striking circular pink light box on the ceiling. Additionally, Watsons introduces ‘My Colour Studio’, where customers can undergo seasonal colour analysis to identify their skin tone, eye, and hair colour, helping them discover the perfect colour palette for their clothing, makeup, and hair.
Watsons Malaysia elevates the shopping experience with a focus on fun and engagement. Alongside diverse experiential zones like ‘My Beauty’, ‘Hair Studio’, and ‘Watsons To Go’, they have introduced ‘K-pop Land’, a vibrant area dedicated to K-beauty products. This colourful, Instagram-worthy zone is designed to attract young customers, encouraging them to create memorable moments with friends. Additionally, the newly introduced ‘Kid’s Wonderland’ offers a perfect setting for families to shop together and enjoy quality time with their children.
In addition to enhancing and redefining the beauty experience for its customers, Watsons is also dedicated to expanding and elevating its professional health offerings.
To cater to the increasing demand from health-conscious customers, Watsons has introduced a revitalised shopping experience focused on health products and personalised consultations. In Watsons Hong Kong, the flagship store will include the ‘HealthQ’ health decoding station, where pharmacists, Chinese medicine practitioners, and nutritionists offer tailored health consultations, vaccinations, and assessments to support customers’ wellness journeys.
And in Thailand, Watsons has launched an enhanced health experience with a modern, stylish store design and a wide range of health products. To support customers on their wellness journeys, the store now features a private consultation room where pharmacists offer personalised, professional advice tailored to individual needs.
Ngai explained, “Watsons understands that simply providing the best products is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of our customers. We’re committed to continuous expansion and innovation, offering the best O+O customer experience. Watsons will always strive to inspire our 100 million loyal members to ‘Look Good, Do Good, and Feel Great’ with us.”
Singapore – Google has announced the completion of its latest data center and cloud region campus expansion in Singapore, bringing the company’s total investment in technical infrastructure in nation to US$5b.
This comes off the back of Google’s recently announced US$2 billion investment in Malaysia, which includes the development of the country’s first Google data center and Google Cloud region to meet the growing demand for cloud services locally and around the world, and Al literacy programs for Malaysian students and educators.
The Google data center in Singapore will power Google’s popular digital services such as Search, Maps, and workspace and will play an important role in enabling Google to deliver AI benefits to users and customers across Singapore.
Moreover, the Google Cloud region will deliver high-performance and low-latency services to large enterprises, startups and public sector organizations. Google Cloud customers will also benefit from key controls that allow them to maintain security, data residency and compliance standards.
This expansion of Google’s data center and cloud region infrastructure will help address the growing demand for cloud services locally and around the world. Complementing strategic initiatives that Google has been running in partnership with the Singapore Government, such as AI Trailblazers, Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore, and Skills Ignition SG, this move affirms the Government’s move to establish Singapore as a regional data center hub, while supporting Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 and its focus on compute infrastructure to fuel AI-led economic development.
Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google, said, “Data centres serve as the growth engines for digital progress by providing the foundation for digital transformation and innovation. The expansion of our data center campus in Singapore reaffirms our commitment to helping Southeast Asian organizations capitalize on digital opportunities, while ensuring that growth is as sustainable as possible.”
She added, “Google is deeply committed to managing our environmental footprint, playing a key role in supporting a just climate transition, and helping to accelerate the global transition to a net-zero future.”
Bangkok, Thailand – Advertising investments by marketers in Thailand rose 4% in January to April 2024, compared to the same period a year ago–with 8 out of 10 marketers saying that the increase is due to social media spend, according to the latest data from Nielsen.
This increase of more than 1,255 million baht, period-on-period, echoes a predicted rise in ad budgets, which shows that 82% of the region’s marketers expect bigger ad budgets in 2024 – a significant jump from 56% in 2023.
While a significant decrease in print spend (-33%) and radio (-2) hindered growth numbers for the Thai advertising market, it was buoyed by large gains in cinema advertising (up 35%), online advertising (up 8%) and linear TV, (up 1%), delivering an overall increase of 4%.
Moreover, while digital channels are expected to occupy almost two-thirds of paid marketing spend in APAC this year, the report also showed that much of that spend may be ‘wasted’, with the average ‘off target’ rate for digital ads in Thailand coming in at 44% – much higher than the APAC average of 33%.
Runchita Srivoravilai, vertical lead for agencies and advertisers at Nielsen Thailand, said, “As Thailand’s ad landscape grows more complex by the day, brands, agencies, and media owners need cutting-edge, high-quality commercial intelligence to stand out from the competition and strategically advance their brands and media. Nothing else comes close to Nielsen Ad Intel here.”
Meanwhile, Arnaud Frade, president of commercial for Asia at Nielsen, commented, “These numbers highlight the necessity for marketers to be more strategic in their ad spend, leveraging top-quality data to gain a competitive edge and maximise their ROI. As budgets get tighter, and there’s growing pressure on being seen and heard, marketers in Asia are doubling-down on targeting the right audiences. Multi-screen viewing is already the norm – and streaming channels are only going to grow. The key is leveraging this, which means effective cross-media measurement, which Nielsen is actively working to deliver in key markets across the region.”
Malaysia – Microsoft has announced that it will invest US$2.2 billion over the next four years to promote Malaysia’s digital transformation. The investment demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to developing Malaysia as a hub for cloud computing and related technologies like generative AI. This project seeks to increase the nation’s productivity, competitiveness, resilience, and economic growth.
The investment in digital infrastructure continues Microsoft’s April 2021 initiative, Bersama Malaysia (Together with Malaysia), which aims to promote inclusive economic growth. This project included preparations to set up the company’s first datacenter area in the nation.
The disclosed investment places Microsoft in a position to handle Malaysia’s growing need for cloud computing services. Furthermore, it enables Malaysia to capitalise on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by AI technology.
Microsoft revealed a broader pledge to provide 2.5 million people in the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with chances for AI skill development by 2025. Governments, nonprofit organisations, corporate entities, and communities throughout Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam will all work together to give this training and support.
The commitment builds on Microsoft’s recent skilling efforts in Malaysia, including its success in providing digital skills to over 1.53 million Malaysians as part of the Bersama Malaysia project.
Microsoft intends to continue working with the Malaysian government on a number of projects aimed at strengthening the country’s digital environment. Among these efforts is the establishment of a national AI Center of Excellence in collaboration with Malaysia’s Ministry of Digital Agency. The objective is to ensure compliance with AI governance and regulatory standards while fostering the deployment of AI across critical industries.
In order to strengthen Malaysia’s cybersecurity capabilities, Microsoft will continue to work with the National Cyber Security Agency of Malaysia (NACSA) as part of the Perisai Siber (Cyber Shield) program. Through security evaluations and capacity building, our alliance will put the public sector’s security and resilience first.
Furthermore, Microsoft wants to support NACSA as it develops the next stage of the country’s cybersecurity strategy, serving as NACSA’s principal agency for cybersecurity matters in Malaysia. The two organisations will also engage in more extensive cooperation to develop cybersecurity knowledge via programs such as Microsoft’s Ready4AI&Security initiative.
Microsoft continues to support the growth of Malaysia’s developer community by launching new projects like AI Odyssey. This initiative aims to assist 2,000 Malaysian developers in becoming AI subject matter experts by acquiring new skills and obtaining Microsoft credentials.
Speaking about the investment, Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft, said, “We are committed to supporting Malaysia’s AI transformation and ensure it benefits all Malaysians. Our investments in digital infrastructure and skilling will help Malaysian businesses, communities, and developers apply the latest technology to drive inclusive economic growth and innovation across the country.”
Meanwhile, YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of Investment, Trade & Industry, said, “Microsoft’s 32-year presence in Malaysia showcases a deep partnership built on trust. Indeed, Malaysia’s position as a vibrant tech investment destination is increasingly being recognized by world-recognized names due to our well-established semiconductor ecosystem, underscored by our value proposition that ‘this is where global starts’.”
He added, “Microsoft’s development of essential cloud and AI infrastructure, together with AI skilling opportunities, will significantly enhance Malaysia’s digital capacity and further elevate our position in the global tech landscape. Together with Microsoft, we look forward to creating more opportunities for our SMEs and better-paying jobs for our people, as we ride the AI revolution to fast-track Malaysia’s digitally empowered growth journey.”
Andrea Della Mattea, president of Microsoft ASEAN, expressed, “We are honoured to collaborate with the government to support their National AI Framework, which enhances the country’s global competitiveness. This strategic emphasis on AI not only boosts economic growth but also promotes inclusivity by bridging the digital divide and ensuring everyone gets a seat at the table, so every Malaysian can thrive in this new digital world. As a result, Malaysia is steadily establishing itself as a regional hub for digital innovation and smart technologies, embodying a forward-thinking approach that prioritises sustainable development and societal well-being through digital transformation.”
Singapore – Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest an extra S$12 billion in its existing cloud infrastructure in Singapore between 2024 and 2028. This decision was initiated by the growing demand for cloud technology and services in the country.
By 2028, AWS aims to have invested over S$23 billion in its cloud infrastructure, tripling its initial S$11.5 billion investment in the AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region through 2023.
AWS is working with Singaporean public organisations to develop solutions powered by AI and generative AI technology. These initiatives include SEA-LION by AI Singapore, Analytics.gov by GovTech Singapore, the Maritime AI-ML Digital Hub by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, StoryGen by the National Library Board, and Synapxe’s national healthcare data and AI app.
AWS intends to launch its flagship AI program, AWS AI Spring for Singapore, in order to support Singapore’s Smart Nation and National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0) goals. With the goal of accelerating the use of AI and generative AI technologies across Singapore, this extensive program incorporates collaborations with the government, enterprises, and public sector organisations in Singapore.
Six key pillars comprise the comprehensive AI program, which is in line with Singapore’s S$1 billion investment in NAIS 2.0 to advance AI initiatives. Its goal is to benefit partners, customers, and the community of AWS.
These pillars include AI Spring Public Sector, focusing on collaboration with the Singapore Government and government agencies to advance AI initiatives for industries and citizens; AI Spring Workforce, offering AI skilling and professional certification programs; AI Spring Enterprise, aimed at fostering AI adoption in local enterprises; AI Spring Startups, dedicated to nurturing core AI startups in Singapore; and AI Spring Communities, contributing to community development.
Within the framework of AI Spring Public Sector, AWS will form collaborations with Singapore government agencies to facilitate and accelerate AI integration in the public sector and across industries. In a significant move, AWS just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Synapxe, Singapore’s HealthTech agency. This cooperation intends to create a data and AI application that will enable healthcare practitioners to use data analytics and AI technology across several healthcare systems.
In addition to this, AWS and the Infocomm and Media Development Authority (IMDA) have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) in support of AI Spring Enterprise. The partnership intends to leverage Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker, and Amazon Q’s capabilities to create an AI adoption program specifically designed for regional businesses.
The goal of this project is to give companies the ability to identify and scale AI applications for important use cases in their operations. The IMDA’s GenAI x Digital Leaders program, which aims to support locally established, digitally mature businesses in creating, developing, and implementing unique generative AI digital solutions, includes the MoI as a key component
AWS’s AI Spring Workforce program is prepared to raise Singapore’s workforce through skilling and professional certification programs in cloud and AI technologies. In accordance with this commitment and in support of the Singapore Government’s goal of tripling the number of AI practitioners to 15,000 within five years, AWS will work with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) such as universities and polytechnics, as well as the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), to improve AI education. The goal is to train 5,000 people in AI skills per year across these educational institutions over a three-year period, from 2024 to 2026.
By utilising its generative AI capabilities, AWS is expanding its assistance to instructors and students in Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), enhancing their educational experiences and facilitating technological discovery and experimentation. AWS and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to incorporate AI education into the ITE curriculum, which is a big step.
Speaking about the investment, Priscilla Chong, country manager of AWS Singapore, stated, “AWS has been deeply committed to helping Singapore grow its economy, workforce, and digital prowess with cloud and advanced technologies since it launched its first Asia Pacific infrastructure Region here over a decade ago.”
She added, “AWS is doubling down on its cloud infrastructure investments in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad, and a global leader in digital competitiveness. This investment will create a ripple effect across Singapore by increasing economic growth and cloud adoption. It also brings additional contributions to the local economy by AWS, such as upskilling the local digital workforce, developing renewable energy projects, and creating a positive impact in the communities where AWS operates.”
Meanwhile, Elsie Tan, country manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore, AWS, said, “With AWS AI Spring, we are eager to embark on this collaborative AI journey with the Government and customers to unlock the potential of AI, and accelerate Singapore’s Smart Nation vision and goal to become a beacon in the international AI field. By leveraging AWS’s broadest and deepest set of artificial intelligence and machine learning services, cloud infrastructure, and network, AWS will empower local organisations and students with technology and skills to tackle unique challenges, unlock new opportunities, delight customers, and scale in a secure, resilient, and sustainable manner.”
Leong Der Yao, assistant chief executive, Sectoral Transformation Group, IMDA, commented, “We believe that AI can be harnessed by enterprises to transform and stay ahead. In 2023, IMDA supported over 3,000 SMEs to adopt AI-enabled pre-approved solutions. Earlier this year, we also launched the GenAI Sandbox for SMEs and GenAI x Digital Leaders initiatives to enable our SMEs to adopt generative AI technology to generate greater business value. Building on this, we are excited to partner with AWS to uplift and empower our enterprises in generative AI. AWS, as a key global partner, will bring the necessary expertise to support IMDA’s GenAI x Digital Leaders initiative to help our digitally mature local companies identify and develop AI solutions for business transformation and growth.”
“We are also working with AWS to incorporate AWS Training and Certification programmes in polytechnic and ITE curriculums. IMDA will continue to collaborate with AWS to upskill and reskill professionals in roles such as AI and Analytics,” Yao added.
Furthermore, Low Khah Gek, CEO of ITE, said, “ITE intends to equip all her students with AI and Gen-AI understanding and competencies to ensure they are industry-ready, job-ready and future-ready. AWS expertise and programmes will accelerate ITE’s plans for the students and staff to learn prompt engineering and start to use Gen-AI and LLM in their learning, projects and work. ITE and AWS will also conduct short CET Gen AI courses for the public and workers to support the upskilling of Singapore’s workforce.”
Lastly, Ngiam Siew Ying, CEO of Synapxe, stated, “The inking of the MOU with AWS reflects our mutual commitment towards enabling our public healthcare users with leading edge cloud-native analytics tools. It will catalyse more efficient analyses towards actionable insights, and transform the way we enhance the quality of healthcare for Singapore.”
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Daler Kendzhaev, most recently the head of Annalect Malaysia, has been promoted to managing director for investment and specialist solutions at Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Malaysia. In an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, Kendzhaev said the new role will see him work with partners and vendors on the investment and partnerships front and manage OMG’s specialist solutions – Annalect, TransAct, and Digital Performance.
Kendzhaev’s newly created role comes as OMG believes it can unlock better solutions for clients through centring the capabilities of investment partnership, specialist solutions, and data under one leadership.
He added that the role is about continuing the momentum OMG has already built by enhancing the agency network’s current relationship with partners through a connected and collaborative strategy, with a singular focus on delivering holistic and innovative products. This will be done while continuing in the area of future-facing data and tech solutions.
As OMG has great ambitions to drive momentum for clients and partners, Kendzhaev said the goal for the next six to 12 months is to improve the synergy between the investment and partnership teams and to meet clients’ needs in the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem.
“At Omnicom Media Group, we are poised to take an active role in developing and delivering the incremental value to our clients through these investment solutions, and also advancing our performance value for our clients,” he added.
Kendzhaev spent nearly four years as head of Annalect Malaysia during which he oversaw the increased adoption of Omni, Omnicom’s industry-leading marketing orchestration and insights platform, across OMG Malaysia and its agency brands.
Under his leadership, Annalect was hungry for growth and adopted a first-mover mindset. “We treated Annalect in Malaysia like a start-up within a large organisation. We had great support from our regional teams that allowed us to achieve really great results in various areas within the group,” Kendzhaev explained.
Some of the initiatives Annalect have worked on include solutions around data automation and visualisation, as well as consulting and enabling marketing tech for brands. OMG also obtained Google Analytics (GA) partner status in Malaysia with certified specialist team to assist clients in their GA4 migration journey.
Understanding industry challenges and opportunities in media investments
When asked about the challenges and opportunities in the media investment space, Kendzhaev said one thing that stands out is the complexity of the measurement metrics in the industry today, which leads to other growth areas.
“In Malaysia, we don’t really have an aligned way of measuring media investments both in the offline world with different methodologies for mediums like TV, especially when it comes to the return on investment. Moreover, there is also a complete lack of measurement in digital, which leads to lot of dysfunctions in decision-making for advertisers,” he explained.
He added, “The upcoming changes in the digital ecosystem without [third-party] cookies is going to add complexity when it comes to digital measurement. Marketers and businesses, are urged to focus on understanding the true impact of media investments on brand equity, sales or other business metrics that are important.”
OMG believes that the cookieless future is one part of where the industry is headed in a privacy-first world. Effective advertising is powered by a variety of signals, with traditional signals like cookies being one of them. With traditional signals deprecating soon due to high privacy concerns, the industry needs to consider new developments like Google PAIR and The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0.
“Let’s take advantage of it. With this connected role, we can move at a faster pace with our clients,” Kendzhaev added.
He also noted that industry collaboration would be ideal in forming strategies and ideas and getting consensus in measurement approach. Nonetheless, OMG has been working on different solutions surrounding connected measurement, future signals, and the digital ecosystem.
“[These solutions] focus on solving measurement issues for various levels such as strategic management decisions down to the day-to-day operational tactics as well. That’s one of the key elements we are focused on in our business” he said.
Considering yet another delay from Google on phasing out third-party cookies, Kendzhaev explained that the whole idea behind the deprecation is to have a privacy-safe environment for advertising and not solely rely on traditional signals like third-party cookies. Given the news, he said marketers should continue progressing towards a privacy-centric approach to advertising.
“We are taking a comprehensive approach, which has been ongoing for a couple of years. Our approach starts with an audit, understanding where the clients are and the goals, they would like to achieve leveraging marketing tech. With that audit, we recommend solutions that are bespoke to the brand, that go across different elements: starting from having the right measurement framework in place, data collection and storage in the privacy-compliant way, to derive insights and improve consumer relationship,” Kendzhaev explained.
This ties in with building a privacy-safe environment and creating a unified view of the customer through UIDs. “Some of the clients that we work with have already started this journey. The delay also means advertisers have additional time to prepare for the change” he added.
T-shaped skill sets and optimism about the future
Talent is another key area Kendzhaev believes is crucial to the industry’s growth and it is important to have T-shaped skillsets in data and tech. “You want to understand how media works so you can bring value to what we do on a day-to-day basis and create solutions that will be more relevant to businesses today. Whether it’s the brands or advertisers or agencies or even vendors, we need to pay attention and invest more in terms of the talent, as well as upskilling them in understanding of what’s happening in the ecosystem that’s going to be critical,” he explained.
Despite all these challenges, he remains optimistic about the ever-changing media landscape.
“At OMG, we are constantly on the lookout for new partnerships driving that unique proposition and incremental value for our clients. Everything that we do within our partnerships has always had elements of how we can create unique value for our clients and that’s something that we’ve been central to our approach,” he concluded.
Singapore – Apple has announced a new expansion in its Singapore at Ang Mo Kio, declaring that they will be investing $250m to said campus. This adds to Apple’s milestone in over four decades of work fostering job creation and deep connections with the local community, and will provide space for growth and new roles in AI and other key functions.
Today, Singapore serves as a central operations centre for Apple in the region, and is a hub for critical roles in software, hardware, services, and support. The country is also home to three vibrant Apple Store locations.
Tim Cook, CEO at Apple, said, “Singapore is truly a one-of-a-kind place, and we are proud of the connection we’ve built with this dynamic community of creators, learners, and dreamers. With our growing campus, Apple is writing a new chapter in our history here. Our Singapore teams have played an important role in enriching the lives of our customers — and we can’t wait for many more decades of innovation to come.”
Apple opened its first facility in Singapore in 1981 with 72 employees focused on Apple II, and has since grown to include a team of more than 3,600 that contributes to every part of the company.
Across Singapore, Apple supports more than 60,000 jobs through direct employment, its supply chain, and the iOS app economy. The company also works with educational institutions, businesses, and organisations using technology and innovation to build a brighter world.
Lastly, like all Apple facilities, the expanded Singapore campus will run on 100 percent renewable energy. Once complete, the office aims to attain LEED Gold certification. Apple has been carbon neutral for its corporate operations since 2020 and has run all of its facilities using 100 percent renewable energy since 2018.
Singapore – Growth equity firm Venturi Partners announced it has invested a total of $25 million in DALI Discount, a rapidly expanding hard discount chain operating in the Philippines, to help support its growth and expansion.
The firm’s investment is set to further accelerate DALI’s ambitious expansion plans to fulfil its mission to sell high-quality, affordable groceries for everyday consumption at the lowest possible price in its local neighbourhood stores.
Leveraging its deep consumer industry expertise and extensive network, Venturi is well-positioned to support DALI in accelerating its expansion initiatives, enhancing operational efficiency, and further strengthening its market presence across the Philippines.
Venturi Partners’ decision to invest in DALI highlights the firm’s belief in the company’s hard-discounting business model, capable management team, and significant market potential to disrupt the retail sector in the Philippines.
This transaction represents Venturi’s second investment in the Philippines, following its investment in grab-and-go coffee chain Pickup Coffee last year. With this, DALI will join the firm’s portfolio of consumer-focused investments in India and Southeast Asia, including Livspace, Country Delight, and Believe.
Meanwhile, Venturi will join Navegar, Creador, the Asian Development Bank, and other institutional investors and family offices on DALI’s cap table.
DALI offers a core range of the 400 most needed consumer goods—food and non-food. The store chain is committed to providing customers with everyday low prices without sacrificing quality.
Nicholas Castor, founding partner at Venturi, said, “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with DALI, a company that is democratising access to high-quality groceries in the Philippines. DALI’s commitment to maximising value for its customers aligns seamlessly with our consumer-first investment philosophy, and we see tremendous potential for the company to expand its reach and improve the lives of even more households across the Philippines.”