Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 13, 2023 - February 19, 2023

NEWS

WhyQ secures RM4.6 mil in Series A2 funding

WhyQ, a digital innovation start-up focused on helping micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) digitalise their businesses, has successfully secured an additional RM4.6 million in an extension to its Series A2 funding round.

The extended round was led by the Kairos FoodTech Fund of Kairos Capital Group. The initial Series A2 round of RM11.8 million closed in 2021 and included Delivery Hero, Chope, Angel Central and RB Investments.

With the additional funding, WhyQ plans to continue expanding its digitalisation platform and supporting the growth of small businesses in Singapore and Malaysia.

“Leveraging our experience in partnering with small-scale F&B owner-operators like hawkers [in Singapore], we would like to extend our expertise to help small business owners in Malaysia digitalise properly with simple and free products. With key backers and partners such as Kairos, Delivery Hero, Ant Group and Chope, we are in a strong position to lead in the region,” says Varun Saraf, CEO and co-founder of WhyQ.

WhyQ supports more than 20,000 small businesses in Singapore and Malaysia. It offers two free products: an e-business app (WhyQ EBiz) and a digital bookkeeping app (WhyQ Kira Kira).

EBiz enables MSMEs to quickly build their own online storefronts, connect with popular marketplaces such as Foodpanda, accept online payments and connect with logistics services such as Lalamove.

Kira Kira allows small businesses to track their daily transactions, manage their accounts and apply for low-interest loans from partners such as Funding Societies.

WhyQ also plans to add more features to the e-business app, such as customisable templates for online storefronts and integrations with popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada. It is working on partnering with more logistics providers and payment gateways to give small businesses even more options for fulfilling orders and accepting payments.

The start-up will also enhance its digital bookkeeping app with new features such as automatic sales and expense categories, inventory management and bill payments. It will continue to expand its network of lending partners to provide more options for small businesses seeking low interest and quick loans.

Meraque Aviators performing a mission plan on site

Meraque kick starts UAV pilot projects

Meraque Services Sdn Bhd began a pilot inspection project for a telecommunications infrastructure company in the Philippines, surveilling more than 3,100 towers. As part of the strategic partnership, Meraque has assembled a team to perform site audits through unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance.

Automated reports using artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics will be generated and presented to the telecommunications company to help make informed business decisions. The Meraque AI software can perform completely autonomous data captures of towers at telecommunications sites and provides high-resolution inspection of the equipment, which helps with future upgrade planning.

Meraque also announced plans to expand its foothold across the Southeast Asian market within the next five years. Expansion plans for Indonesia and Cambodia in 2023 are underway.

In Malaysia, Meraque is forging collaborative ties with agricultural companies as part of its expansion plans. Meraque will use its UAVs, along with its Precision Agriculture Software Solution and autonomous ground vehicle, to reduce manpower reliance and improve fertiliser-spraying consistency in oil palm plantations.

Carsome collaborates with Electrum to spur demand for electric two-wheelers

Carsome is joining forces with Indonesia-based Electrum to further accelerate two-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) adoption in response to the growing demand for sustainable and economical transportation. This is also part of its plans to bolster and expand its Indonesian operations, especially in the Nusantara capital.

Eric Cheng, group CEO and co-founder of Carsome, submitted a letter of intent (LOI) to the Minister of International Trade and Industry in conjunction with Carsome’s participation in the Malaysian prime minister’s working visit to Jakarta. The LOI cites the company’s interest in setting up operations in Nusantara and investing in digitalising the automotive industry.

Content Forum: 71% of complaints received related to internet or social media content

The complaints bureau of the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (Content Forum) received 518 cases related to the internet and social media content, or 71% of a total of 734 cases lodged, in 2022.

Messaging app WhatsApp received the most complaints at 204 cases, followed by Facebook (130 cases), Instagram (68 cases), TikTok (13 cases) and Twitter (six cases).

In addition, the number of new media cases that its complaints bureau received in 2022 rose to 421, from 412 in 2021.

The complaints range from cyberbullying and misuse of private information to love scams and posts that offend religion.

Couchbase to power Cinesite’s production pipeline

Cloud database platform Couchbase Inc has announced that it will be managing award-winning digital entertainment studio Cinesite’s production pipeline.

Cinesite has worked on multiple award-winning productions, from the first digital effects in the James Bond film Goldeneye to Academy Award and BAFTA nominations and wins for The Revenant and The Witcher: Season 2. It has also grown rapidly: Since 2012, it has taken on seven new studios and now operates across the UK, Canada, Germany, Serbia, FYR Macedonia and India.

Couchbase’s Cross-Data Centre Replication (XDCR) capabilities will allow Cinesite to synchronise activity on projects of any size. Instead of keeping production limited to a single studio, Cinesite will be able to collaborate effectively, whether it is a large-scale collaboration between two Cinesite studios or a small-scale one with an artist contributing for a few hours to a project led in another location.

Michele Sciolette, chief technology officer of Cinesite, says having all artists working under one roof was no longer feasible, and the production studio needed a replacement that could support the data requirements of modern visual effects and animation as well as replicate data across all their studios to ensure a consistent view on the data that each of their artists is producing.

“We considered several offerings, but Couchbase was the only one that met our full demands,” he says.

 

PEOPLE MOVES

Izlyn Ramli leaves TM for Maybank

Izlyn Ramli has joined Maybank as head of group corporate affairs and CEO of the Maybank Foundation. Izlyn has nearly 30 years of management experience and a strong professional and personal network. According to her LinkedIn profile, her last tenure was with Telekom Malaysia Bhd, where she served for more than 12 years.

PropertyGuru Group welcomes new CMO

PropertyGuru Group has appointed Disha Goenka Das as its chief marketing officer. Das will oversee the group’s brand strategy and corporate communications function as well as its environmental, social and governance mandate.

Digital Penang has a new CEO

Digital Penang, the state government agency in charge of digitalisation established in 2020, has named Ng Kwang Ming as its new CEO. The agency aims to accelerate efforts to capture opportunities in the digital economy and promote a digitally engaged society. Ng replaces Tony Yeoh, following the latter’s retirement.

Ng’s focus will be the Digital Transformation Plan 1.0, which was launched in March last year. The plan aims to lay the foundation for the digitalisation journey, which is aligned with the Penang2030 vision. Ng will continue the digital push and lay out the next phase of the master plan.

FexEx appoints new managing director in Malaysia

FedEx Express (FedEx), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, has appointed Woon Tien-Long as the new managing director of FedEx Express Malaysia. He will be taking over from Chong Siang-Chung, who retired from the logistics behemoth after 19 years.

Woon joined FedEx Express Malaysia in 2010 as senior engineer for planning and engineering. In 2019, he was appointed managing director of FedEx Express Thailand. In his new role, Woon will lead a team of nearly 900 members in Malaysia and continue to oversee FedEx operations in Thailand until his successor is announced.

 

TECH BOOKS

Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World by Cade Metz

What does it mean to be smart? To be human? What do we really want from life and the intelligence we have or might create?

With deep and exclusive reporting across hundreds of interviews, New York Times Silicon Valley journalist Cade Metz brings you into the rooms where these questions are being answered — where an extraordinarily powerful new artificial intelligence has been built into our biggest companies, our social discourse and our daily lives, with few of us even noticing.

Long dismissed as a technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is a project consigned to the fringes of the scientific community. Then two researchers change everything. One is a 64-year-old computer science professor who does not drive or fly because he can no longer sit down, but still makes his way across North America for the moment that will define a new age of technology. The other is a 36-year-old neuroscientist and chess prodigy who lays claim to being the greatest game player of all time before vowing to build a machine that can do anything the human brain could do.

They take two very different paths to that lofty goal and disagree on how quickly it will arrive. But both are soon drawn into the heart of the tech industry. Their ideas drive a new kind of arms race, spanning Google, Microsoft, Facebook and OpenAI, a new lab founded by Silicon Valley kingpin Elon Musk. But some believe China will beat them all to the finish line.

Genius Makers dramatically presents the fierce conflict between national interests, shareholder value, the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the very human concerns about privacy, security, bias and prejudice. Like a great Victorian novel, this world of eccentric, brilliant and often unimaginably, yet suddenly, wealthy characters draws you into the most profound moral questions we can ask. And like a great mystery, it presents the story and facts that lead to a core, vital question: How far will we let it go? — Amazon

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“One of the most exciting opportunities is how AI can deepen our understanding of information and turn it into useful knowledge more efficiently, making it easier for people to get to the heart of what they’re looking for and get things done. When people think of Google, they often think of turning to us for quick factual answers, like ‘How many keys does a piano have?’ But, increasingly, people are turning to Google for deeper insights and understanding, like ‘Is the piano or guitar easier to learn, and how much practice does each need?’ Learning about a topic like this can take a lot of effort to figure out what you really need to know, and people often want to explore a diverse range of opinions or perspectives.” — Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc

Alphabet’s Google will be releasing its own conversational chatbot, named Bard, a ChatGPT competitor, in the coming weeks. According to Pichai, the goal of Bard is to simplify complex topics.

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a nine-year-old or learn more about the best strikers in football right now and then get drills to build your skills,”

Pichai says in a blog post. Its rival Microsoft Corp, which has invested US$10 billion (RM43 billion) in OpenAi, the company that developed ChatGPT, is also expected to announce ChatGPT integration into its Bing search engine soon.

 

EDITOR’S MUST-HAVES

Sustainability-focused laptop — Aspire Vero

Computers are not exactly the most eco-friendly products but they are critical to survival in the Digital Age. This is where Acer’s Aspire Vero notebook comes in. The Acer Vero is powered by Windows 11 and made from recycled materials.

According to the website, the laptop is EPEAT Silver-certified, a rating system in the US that allows consumers, purchasers, manufacturers and resellers to identify environmentally preferable electronic goods.

The Aspire Vero meets a significant list of environmental and socially responsible criteria, including substance management, material selection, product longevity, energy consumption, packaging, carbon footprint and corporate environmental performance and social responsibility.

It is made from 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in the chassis, which saves 21% in carbon dioxide emissions and 50% PCR on the keyboard caps to reduce pollution from the production of virgin plastic and landfill trash. In addition, no paint is used on the surface of the chassis. Acer’s VeroSense software gives users the option of selecting a usage mode that has been optimised for energy efficiency and battery life.

The Aspire Vero’s 100% recyclable packaging earned it a 2021 Red Dot Award for Brand & Communication Design. The laptop protective bag and keyboard are made of 100% recycled plastic and the protective carton box includes up to 85% recycled materials.

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