DARE-19 PHASE III SHOWS TREATMENT’S WELL-ESTABLISHED SAFETY PROFILE CONSISTENT IN COVID-19 PATIENTS

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 (Bernama) -- The findings of DARE-19, a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial examining Dapagliflozin in patients with cardiometabolic risk factors hospitalised with COVID-19, have been published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. 

The study was a collaboration of George Clinical, a global scientifically-backed clinical research organisation and Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and was funded by AstraZeneca, according to a statement.

“In a month, we broke down barriers to go from concept to our first patient in the trial, and the team displayed extraordinary commitment needed to successfully manage this research during this pandemic personally and professionally,” said George Clinical Chief Business Officer, Sean Hart. 

Prior to the study, it was established that patients hospitalised with COVID-19 with cardiometabolic risk factors had an elevated risk of organ failure and death.

DARE-19 was the first large, randomised controlled study of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of SGLT2 inhibitors.

Detailed results from the primary analysis of the DARE-19 Phase III trial assessing the potential of Farxiga (dapagliflozin), a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, to treat patients hospitalised with COVID-19 who are at risk of developing serious complications, showed the trial did not achieve statistical significance for the two primary endpoints. 

However, there were numerically fewer events of death or new or worsened organ dysfunction in the Farxiga group compared with placebo.

The primary endpoint of prevention was defined as new or worsened respiratory, cardiovascular or kidney organ dysfunction during hospitalisation or death from any cause during the 30-day treatment period.

Numerically fewer events were observed in the Farxiga group across all components of this composite endpoint. Cardiac, renal and metabolic comorbidities have been associated with poor outcomes and death in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

 The second primary endpoint of recovery, which assessed change in clinical status (improvement or deterioration) compared to baseline, showed no overall difference between the treatment groups. 

More details at https://www.georgeclinical.com.

-- BERNAMA

Riskified initial public offering pricing announced

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 -- Riskified Ltd (Riskified), a fraud management platform enabling frictionless eCommerce, has announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 17,500,000 Class A ordinary shares at a public offering price of US$21.00 per Class A ordinary share. (US$1 = RM4.226)

The offering consists of 17,300,000 Class A ordinary shares offered by Riskified and 200,000 Class A ordinary shares to be sold by one of Riskified’s existing shareholders. Riskified will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholder.

The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,625,000 Class A ordinary shares from Riskified at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Based on a statement, the Class A ordinary shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 29, under the ticker symbol RSKD.

Meanwhile, the closing of the offering is expected to occur on Aug 2, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are acting as lead book-running managers for the offering.

Riskified empowers businesses to realise the full potential of eCommerce by making it safe, accessible, and frictionless. It has built a next-generation eCommerce risk management platform that allows online merchants to create trusted relationships with their consumers.

-- BERNAMA

TOSHIBA STARTS MASS PRODUCTION OF 12 NEW DEVICES IN M4K GROUP FOR MOTOR CONTROL

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba) announced it has started the mass production of 12 new devices in the M4K group for motor control as the first products of the TXZ+™ family advanced class.

It will start mass production of another 10 products in the M4M group in August this year, according to a statement.

Both the M4K and M4M groups of microcontrollers will be manufactured in a 40nm process, and belong to the TXZ4A+ series.

These products use Arm Cortex-M4 core with FPU, running up to 160MHz, and integrating motor control circuit A-PMD (advance-programmable motor driver), 32-bit encoder A-ENC (advanced-encoder) and vector engine A-VE+ (advanced vector engine plus).

These devices provide suitable solutions for AC motor, brushless DC motor and various inverter controls with a maximum of three units of high-speed and high-resolution 12-bit analog/digital converters.

Devices in the M4K group have UART, SPI and I²C integrated as general communication interfaces, and the M4M group additionally has a CAN communication interface.

Both groups achieve low current consumption and high functionality while maintaining good compatibility with existing TXZ™ family M4K(2) group.

Documentations, sample software with example of actual usage, evaluation boards and driver software which control interfaces for each peripheral are provided together with parts shipment. 

A development environment is also provided to support various needs in cooperation with global Arm ecosystem partners.

More details at https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/top.html.

-- BERNAMA

PHC HOLDINGS CORPORATION: APPOINTMENT OF MR. ALAN MALUS AND MS. KYOKO DEGUCHI AS INDEPENDENT EXTERNAL DIRECTORS

 TOKYO, July 28 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- PHC Holdings Corporation (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, President & CEO: John Marotta, hereafter PHCHD), a leading global healthcare company, has today announced the appointment of Alan Malus and Kyoko (Kay) Deguchi as independent external directors, effective June 30, 2021. Both bring extensive knowledge of the healthcare industry and executive-level experience at international and Japan-based medical device and life sciences companies.

Mr. Malus joins the board with over 18 years’ experience in the life sciences and diagnostics industry. Mr. Malus was most recently Corporate Executive Vice President at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and the President of their Laboratory Products and Services Segment. He has held various leadership and senior executive positions in finance, marketing, commercial development and operations since joining Thermo Fisher in 1998. His early career started with almost 15 years in the automotive industry, working for Ford, Chrysler and Textron.

Ms. Deguchi joins the board with over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare and chemical industries. Ms. Deguchi has most recently run the Ochanomizu Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Clinic as Vice Director and currently serves as an outside director of several public and private companies, including Nippon Ski Resort Dev Co., Ltd., T-Gaia Corporation, and Heartseed Co., Ltd. She has held a number of senior leadership positions in finance, marketing and operations for the Japanese subsidiaries of various international healthcare companies, including Janssen Pharmaceutical, Stryker and Abbvie.

John Marotta, President and CEO of PHCHD and Chairman of the Board of Directors for PHCHD, said: "I am delighted to welcome Alan and Kay to the PHC Holdings Board of Directors and we are thrilled to have attracted people of their caliber to our board. They have exceptional track records of driving commercial success for companies in the healthcare sector. They bring a wealth of experience from both international and Japan-based companies. This will be invaluable as we look to the next phase of growth for the PHC Group. They are great additions to the team and I am excited to begin working with each of them."

Mr. Malus will serve as the lead independent external director. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40637

Uniphore to Acquire Jacada to Transform Customer Experience with Advanced AI and Low Code/No Code Automation

Uniphore + Jacada will become the only low code/no code automation provider with multimodal AI and RPA

PALO ALTO, Calif. & ATLANTA, Ga. & HERZILYA, Israel, July 28 (BUSINESS WIRE)--

Uniphore, a leader in Conversational Service Automation (CSA), today announced its agreement to acquire Jacada, a customer experience pioneer with the industry’s leading low code/no code platform for contact center automation. Jacada’s advanced automation software brings a proven track record of solving complex contact center challenges and empowering the design and implementation of transformational customer experiences quickly and easily.

Combined with Jacada’s innovative low code/no code platform, Uniphore’s industry-leading conversational automation platform will empower businesses to easily automate key interactions across self-service and agent-assisted customer engagements. With this comprehensive platform, business users can realize state-of-the-art digital transformation, resulting in significant ROI.

When integrated with Uniphore’s conversational AI and automation solutions, along with Jacada’s deep experience spanning decades focused on contact centers, the joint solution will deliver significant benefits to customers, including:

• Business user-friendly interface with a low code/no code platform that empowers business users to generate interaction flows for increased automation and fast, easy implementation.
• Optimized and customizable AI models for different industry verticals.
• Workflow and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for both multi-modal self-service and agent assisted interactions.
• Fully scripted and AI-enabled next-best action to guide both the customer and the agent.
• Enhanced knowledge-base guidance for increased agent efficiency and accuracy.
• Highly automated agent after-call work (ACW) summaries and call disposition
• Automatic logging of promises made during agent interaction and managing the fulfillment post call.
• End-to-end post interaction analytics and insights.

The acquisition comes at a time when enterprises are having more conversations with their customers over multiple mediums and modes of communications. Currently, the market is heavily fragmented with point solutions across self-service, agent-assist, analytics, security, front-office, back office and RPA products.

Upon closing the acquisition of Jacada, and with Uniphore's January 2021 acquisition of Emotion Research Labs , Uniphore will be the only vendor to provide proven low code/no code capabilities along with best-of-breed voice and video AI, including self-service, intelligent in-call agent assist, complete natural language after-call work summaries, trusted agent solutions and post interaction analytics. Now, customers can truly deliver front office and back-office automation across every customer and agent interaction, truly optimizing every conversation, in a simplified, business-friendly UX environment and desktop.

“Today, I welcome the Jacada team and celebrate the announcement that will ultimately bring cutting-edge low code/no code technology to our portfolio along with a very talented team of professionals who will supercharge the Uniphore innovation engine,” said Umesh Sachdev, CEO and Co-founder of Uniphore. “I am very excited to have the Jacada team join us as we work together to bring our customers new ways to quickly and easily build and deliver transformative customer experiences.”

"Our customers rely on us to bring them the latest and greatest solutions to help them grow their business,” said Yochai Rozenblat, CEO of Jacada. “We are stoked about joining forces with a team who is both experienced and passionate about contact centers, customer experience, and intelligent automation. Looking at what Uniphore has developed across such a wide range of applications and areas, we know that together, we will truly lead the industry in new and exciting ways, combining advanced automation and AI capabilities to deliver solutions that create lasting value and differentiation for our customers.”

Subject to completing customary closing conditions, the Jacada team, its intellectual property, and products will become part of Uniphore, enabling Uniphore to continue to deliver industry-leading products and services for their global joint customer base. Specific financial terms and other details of the deal are not being disclosed.

About Jacada

Jacada is the leading provider of contact center automation software, recognized for its unified intelligent virtual agent and robotic process automation capabilities. Contact center and customer experience leaders at Fortune 1000 companies trust Jacada with assisting customers and customer service employees during moments that matter. Business analysts and developers use our low code automation platform to build and launch real-time assistance solutions leveraging AI and RPA in weeks and realize return on investment in months.

About Uniphore

Uniphore is the global leader in Conversational Service Automation. The Company’s vision is to disrupt an outdated customer service model by bridging the gap between human and machine using voice, AI and automation to ensure that every voice, on every call, is truly heard. Uniphore enables businesses globally to deliver transformational customer service by providing an automation platform where digital agents take over transactional conversations from humans, coach agents during calls, and accurately predict language, emotion and intent. All in real-time. With Conversational Service Automation, enterprises can now engage their customers to effectively build loyalty, improve customer experience and realize operational efficiencies.

For more information on the news and additional assets, please visit: www.uniphore.com/jacada

Follow our blog and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210727005553/en/

Contact

MEDIA CONTACTS:
North America
Marjaneh Ravai, Uniphore
Mobile: 650.346.3756
marjaneh.ravai@uniphore.com

India / Asia Pacific:
Cynanda Noronha, Uniphore
+91 9008026309
Cynanda@uniphore.com

Source : Uniphore

NEWQUEST ACQUIRES MINORITY INTEREST IN KIDS CLINIC INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- NewQuest Capital Partners (NewQuest), the leading dedicated secondary private equity platform focused on the Asia-Pacific region, has announced acquiring a minority interest in Kids Clinic India Private Limited that operates as Cloudnine chain of hospitals across India.

This stake has been acquired through a combination of a primary investment and acquisition of a secondary stake from existing investors and other shareholders, based on a statement.

Cloudnine is India’s premium birthing centre for maternal, childcare and fertility care. The Company is headquartered in Bengaluru with 16 facilities spread across in Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune.

Partner and Head of India and Southeast Asia at NewQuest, Amit Gupta said: “We believe that the healthcare segment is on the cusp of high growth and Cloudnine is well positioned to consolidate its market leading position under the stewardship of Raviganesh Venkataraman, Chief Executive Officer at Cloudnine.”

NewQuest made its investment in Cloudnine from its fourth flagship fund, which closed in late 2019 with US$1 billion in commitments. (US$1 = RM4.232)

The investment represents NewQuest’s third investment in India in the last six months. NewQuest’s other recent investments in India include Cosmos-Maya and KreditBee.

Meanwhile, Founder Chairman and Neonatologist at Cloudnine, Dr Kishore Kumar said: “We now welcome NewQuest as our investor partners during this next exciting phase of growth to deliver further technological advancement and public private partnership to make pregnancy and childbirth a safe and enjoyable experience for every mother in India.”

Allegro Advisors acted as exclusive Financial Advisor to Cloudnine and its shareholders.

For NewQuest, Induslaw acted as Legal Advisors, Alvarez & Marsal and Dhruva Advisors acted as Financial Due Diligence and Tax advisers, respectively, and Envint Global acted as the ESG diligence advisers.

More details at www.nqcap.com.

-- BERNAMA

TETRATE OPENS SINGAPORE OFFICE, EXPANDING APAC REGION PRESENCE

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Tetrate, the leader in application-aware networking and service mesh technologies, has announced the opening of a Singapore office to expand its presence in the APAC region.

"We are seeing strong momentum for Tetrate’s products in the APAC region and now is the right time to invest in building a strong sales and engineering team in Asia," said Tetrate Chief Executive Officer, Varun Talwar.

Tetrate also appointed Karthik Viswanathan as the APAC sales leader and Adrian Cole as head of engineering to build out its team in Asia, according to a statement.

Viswanathan has grown sales organisations for Cloudhealth (acquired by VMware) and Fortinet, while Cole is a co-founder and major contributor to open source projects like JClouds, Spring Cloud Sleuth and OpenZipkin.

This expansion in the region reflects Tetrate’s ambition to be closer to its global customers. The Singapore-based team will include sales, marketing, engineering and customer success professionals.

This will enable local and regional customers to receive quicker guidance and support. Tetrate will continue its expansion efforts in the coming months to add more locations in Asia.

Adopted by Fortune 200 financial, health and retail companies, and US federal government organisations, Tetrate’s application delivery platform and its flagship product, Tetrate Service Bridge, help accelerate cloud adoption, digital transformation and zero trust architecture.

Tetrate, a leading contributor to Envoy Proxy and Istio, helps enterprises with their service mesh adoption journey by providing commercial support and expertise.

More details at www.tetrate.io.

-- BERNAMA

ACCELERATE UNVEILS DIGITAL PLATFORM LAUNCH

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Accelerate has entered the global health ecosystem as a purpose-built digital platform driving 365 healthcare transformation by connecting health professionals to insights from peers and thought leaders, professional development tools, networking opportunities and curated content — anytime, anywhere.

Accelerate's initial development has come from HIMSS, the global adviser and thought leader supporting transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology, according to a statement.

Accelerate is a natural extension of HIMSS's origins and foundation as a member-driven society, and is an innovative solution aimed to support members, partners and the global health ecosystem 365 days a year.

“With unparalleled relationships among healthcare providers, industry executives, and public entities, Accelerate will be a digital platform that convenes a variety of health stakeholders,” said HIMSS president and chief executive officer, Hal Wolf.

With Accelerate, professionals from all parts of the healthcare ecosystem have access to a highly personalised platform tailored to their unique needs.

Organisations benefit from radically improved ways of managing, supporting, and developing their staff and members, while suppliers enjoy unmatched access to market insights, as well as innovative ways to engage with customers.

Additionally, Accelerate will seamlessly integrate with curated 3rd party offerings — thereby empowering industry-leading partners to distribute their digital products and services through the platform 365 days a year.

Accelerate is available to all HIMSS members, individual users, as well as enterprises, organisations, and associations interested in getting access for their members.

More details at www.youraccelerate.com.

-- BERNAMA

BLACK & VEATCH GUIDES POINT-OF-USE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FOR VEHICLE FUEL STUDY

 Viability of distributed green hydrogen production’s potential in fleet decarbonization key to future of transportation


OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 29 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence business Empati has commissioned Black & Veatch to deliver a study into the feasibility of using distributed production of green hydrogen to fuel vehicle fleets. Black & Veatch will provide an economic, logistical and technical assessment of onsite, on-demand hydrogen production’s potential as a fuel for fleet operators seeking to decarbonize.

Hydrogen is a proven vehicle fuel. Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, offers fleet operators a route to achieving decarbonization targets. The convention is for centralized hydrogen production, then transportation for storage at fleet depots or filling stations. Black & Veatch’s study will seek to confirm that small-scale distributed hydrogen production at the point of use offers a viable alternative in achieving competitive price points.

“We will establish the technical requirements and the economic model for distributed renewable generation to power small-scale on-site hydrogen production,” said Jonathan Cristiani, Advanced Power Fuels Engineer, Black & Veatch. “Because commercial viability requires a supply chain capable of supporting a network of distributed green hydrogen facilities, our study addresses the entire ‘hydrogen ecosystem,’ not just the technology.”

The study, undertaken by Black & Veatch’s Hydrogen Technology Group, will build upon the company’s experience in developing hydrogen vehicle fuel infrastructure and distributed hydrogen power assets, as well as project experience that establishes hydrogen as a viable piece of the future of decarbonization. The study will be carried out along with a collaborative project to integrate Empati’s AI platform with Black & Veatch’s Asset 360 platform.

“We see green hydrogen as a digital fuel that is a perfect fit for a decentralized set-up such as networks of filling stations or fleet depots. We look to deploy our technology globally, partnering with the most innovative companies across the hydrogen supply chain,” said Gopal Ramchurn, Co-CEO, Empati. “As a technology agnostic partner with real-world experience in hydrogen - and every point in the lifecycle of distributed power and alternative vehicle fuel infrastructure - Black & Veatch is ideally placed to help us do that.”

To support decarbonization initiatives, and the use of hydrogen as a part of decarbonization strategies, Black & Veatch in 2021 joined the Hydrogen Council and was appointed advisor to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee. This year also saw the publication of the company’s Fleet Decarbonization ebook, and Hydrogen 2021: A Roadmap to NetZero guide.

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2020 exceeded US$3.0 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210728005001/en/


Contact

MALCOLM HALLSWORTH | +44 1483 319287 p | +44 7920 701764 m | HallsworthM@BV.com
24-HOUR MEDIA HOTLINE | +1 866 496 9149

Source : Black & Veatch

Anna Convery is Jumio chief marketing officer

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 -- Jumio, the leading provider of AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and eKYC solutions, has announced the appointment of Anna Convery as chief marketing officer.

She joins Jumio from Radware, a leading cybersecurity provider, where she held the global position of chief marketing officer for nearly five years.

With extensive experience in cybersecurity, AML, fraud, robotic process automation, voice analytics, biometrics, enterprise customer experience and customer journey analytics, Convery focuses on building highly scalable, highly optimised marketing functions that deliver revenue and market value. 

Her appointment is the latest development in a landmark year for Jumio in which the company grew revenue and sales over 150 per cent in Q2 2021, achieved all-time record sales for its end-to-end AML compliance solutions, and secured a US$150 million investment from Great Hill Partners. (US$1 = RM4.232)

“It’s because of Jumio’s position as a leader in the digital identity market that we’re able to continuously attract top-calibre talent across all functions, from sales and marketing to technology, innovation and customer experience.

“Anna’s experience in building powerful, public brands will be invaluable to Jumio as we accelerate our growth strategy,” said Jumio CEO Robert Prigge in a statement.

Convery, recognised as a Woman of the Year in Technology by the Georgia chapter of Women in Technology, is a longtime advocate for the advancement of STEM education and professional development for women and girls.

“I am delighted to join a global world-class leadership team and to help further Jumio’s mission to make the internet a safer place,” she said.

Based in Palo Alto, Jumio is backed by Centana Growth Partners, Great Hill Partners and Millennium Technology Value Partners. 

For more information, visit www.jumio.com.

-- BERNAMA

RIPPLE, SBI REMIT START ON-DEMAND LIQUIDITY, ACCELERATING JAPAN'S CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Ripple, the leading provider of enterprise blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions for global payments, has announced the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan.

This is in collaboration with SBI Remit Co Ltd, the largest money transfer provider in Japan, and one of the leading mobile wallet services in the Philippines, Coins.ph.

This expanded partnership will see SBI Remit connect with Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade on RippleNet for faster and more affordable cross-border payments from Japan to the Philippines.

With ODL now available in Japan, RippleNet customers can leverage the digital asset XRP to eliminate pre-funding and reduce operational costs, unlocking capital and fuel the expansion of their payment businesses.

“The expansion of our relationship with SBI Remit to kickstart RippleNet’s ODL service in Japan marks a major milestone in one of our largest markets. SBI Remit has been a leader when it comes to embracing new technology to deliver the best customer experience,” said Asheesh Birla, General Manager of RippleNet at Ripple, in a statement.

Driven by long-term growth trends of foreign workers and cross-border e-commerce in Japan, there is an expected increase in low-value, high-frequency remittances.

The Filipino diaspora is currently the third largest in Japan – in 2020, remittance flows from Japan to the Philippines sent by overseas Filipino workers totalled approximately US$1.8 billion. (US$1 = RM4.232)

“We see tremendous potential in leveraging blockchain technology to transform not only the way payment transactions are made but in how we manage our business by unlocking trapped capital,” said SBI Remit Representative Director, Nobuo Ando.

Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing regions for Ripple with transactions growing 130 per cent year-over-year.

-- BERNAMA

CLOUDFLARE TO CREATE NEW BLUEPRINT FOR ZERO-EMISSIONS INTERNET

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Cloudflare Inc, the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, has announced it would help power an Internet with zero carbon emissions.

Now, not only will one of the world's largest and most interconnected networks operate on 100 per cent renewable energy, but Cloudflare will also remove all historical carbon its global network has emitted since its founding by 2025.

According to a statement, any Internet property on Cloudflare’s network — which today already consists of 17 per cent of the web — will automatically reduce emissions and seamlessly contribute to a greener, more sustainable world.

“We want to give the Internet a clean slate to help build towards a future where it’s easy for anyone to create, build, and run their applications on green energy while remaining secure, fast, and reliable,” said Cloudflare co-founder and chief executive officer, Matthew Prince.

Cloudflare is also releasing sustainable edge computing services and energy efficient features to help organisations of any size build sustainability directly into their own applications, websites, and networks.

Businesses can choose to intelligently route traffic through data centres powered by renewable energy using Green Compute on Cloudflare Workers.

Customers can also understand and quantify their individual footprints and approximate savings from Cloudflare’s network in comparison to Internet averages with the Carbon Impact Report.

Furthermore, organisations that deploy websites on Cloudflare Pages will automatically operate on renewable energy and receive a green certification from The Green Web Foundation displayed through a verified badge.

Cloudflare is providing environmentally efficient solutions, giving organisations a seamless way to power compute with renewable energy; quantify their individual footprint and carbon savings from Cloudflare’s network; receive green certification on their websites by default; and, reduce unnecessary energy from search engines indexing the web.

More details at www.cloudflare.com.

-- BERNAMA

Jumio unveils sales, revenue growth over 150 per cent in second quarter

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 -- Jumio, the leading provider of AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and eKYC solutions, has announced that sales and revenue grew over 150 per cent in Q2 2021 from Q2 2020.

This is fuelled by an ongoing need for modern enterprises to know and trust that their online users are who they claim to be, according to a statement.

This is evidenced by the large growth seen in financial services, mobile delivery services and social platforms verifying everyone from customers to employees to influencers.

Enabled by Jumio’s acquisition of Beam Solutions’ AML platform, the company also established all-time record sales for its end-to-end AML compliance solutions. 

“As almost all business is now remote-first, it is more important than ever to establish trust online. A comprehensive, AI-powered verification platform is key to accommodating our customers’ explosive growth and helping them establish and maintain trust online,” said Jumio Chief Executive Officer, Robert Prigge.

Other notable achievements in the second quarter include in April, Jumio added iProov’s award-winning liveness detection to its KYX Platform, ensuring that the online user is genuine, physically present and not a sophisticated cyberattack using deepfakes or other synthetic media.

Jumio also added and expanded a significant number of key partnerships in the second quarter, including Microsoft, Copper River IT, Australia’s National Crime Check and Veridium.

In addition, Jumio was named a gold winner in the 2021 IT World Awards in which Jumio was honoured for its KYX Platform, validating the company’s efforts to provide a secure, comprehensive solution, helping enterprises confirm user identity, prevent fraud and safely onboard customers.

More details at www.jumio.com.

-- BERNAMA

KYRIBA-BLACKLINE PARTNERSHIP TO STREAMLINE OFFICE OF THE CFO DIGITALISATION

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Accounting automation software leader BlackLine Inc and Kyriba, a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, have announced joining forces to streamline the digitalisation of the Office of the CFO and improve collaboration between Finance and Treasury departments.

The partnership offers enhanced capabilities for mutual customers through their integrated solutions to accelerate bank connectivity, increasing cash visibility and enabling greater automation within the financial close and accounts receivable processes.

At a time when organisational resilience is more important than ever, Finance and Treasury leaders need their technology solutions to work more efficiently together across both the Finance and Accounting organisations, including Treasury and Risk.

BlackLine and Kyriba help companies adapt and respond to the changing landscape by streamlining processes, enhancing data integrity, optimising cash and liquidity management, and automating repetitive work to transform traditional close processes.

“Kyriba unlocks rapid integration capabilities with its innovation in connectivity and has created new ecosystems of value through global partnerships,” Kyriba chief revenue officer Joe Marcin said in a statement.

“Coupling Kyriba’s innovative treasury capabilities with BlackLine’s market-leading financial close and accounts receivable automation solutions is a natural evolution in financial close, analysis and reporting.”

Meanwhile, BlackLine Channels and Alliances senior vice-president Mel Zeledon said: “With our new partnership, BlackLine provides Kyriba customers with market-leading solutions that fuel treasury teams with real-time, reliable and data-backed analytics to automate bank reconciliation and other key financial close and accounts receivable processes.”

San Diego-headquartered Kyriba is a secure, scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial intelligence, automates payments workflows, and enables thousands of multinational corporations and banks to maximise growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce operational costs.

For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

-- BERNAMA

CSOP ANNOUNCES CSOP CHINA HEALTHCARE DISRUPTION INDEX ETF LISTING ON THE HKEX

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- CSOP Asset Management Limited (CSOP) has announced the listing of CSOP China Healthcare Disruption Index ETF (stock ticker: 3174.HK) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (the HKEX).

According to a statement, 3174.HK will track the performance of the Solactive China Healthcare Disruption Index (the Index).

With listing price at around HKD 7.8 per unit, trading lot of 100 shares and annual management fee of 0.99 per cent, CSOP China Healthcare Disruption Index ETF will start to trade on July 21. (HKD 100 = RM54.56)

Upon inception, 3174.HK has received around HKD 103 million initial investment.

Managing Director, Head of Business Development and Product Strategy & Solutions, Melody He said: “We are delighted to bring another future-themed ETF to our investors. The launch of 3174.HK enables investors to grasp the investment opportunities by pursuing a healthier life more easily and transparently.”

In 2020, the healthcare sector in the Hong Kong stock market showed strong growth momentum and received significant market interest with 23 newly-listed healthcare companies raising a total of HKD 98 billion.

To replicate the robust performance of the fast-growing healthcare industry in Greater China, the Solactive China Healthcare Disruption Index comprehensively invests in up to 35 most representative Hong Kong-listed companies with business operations in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

Based on historical back-testing data, the Index achieves a return of 36.6 per cent over the prior 12 months.

Primarily adopting a physical representative sampling strategy to replicate the index, 3174.HK enables worldwide investors to grasp the investment opportunities of healthcare industry in an easy and transparent way.

As the pioneer ETF issuer in Hong Kong, CSOP has always been dedicated to providing ETFs/ETPs that not only serve the demands of asset allocation, but also present the prospects of investments, with 3174.HK being one of the important members of CSOP future-defining thematic ETFs.

-- BERNAMA

'CONNECTECHASIA' ENDS SUCCESSFULLY WITH PARTICIPATION OF KOREA'S DIGITAL CONTENT COMPANIES

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 (Bernama) -- The Singapore ICT exhibition, ‘CommunicAsia 2021-ConnecTechAsia’ (hosted by IMDA & Informa Tech/sponsored by Informa Tech), with participation of digital content companies of Korea, the world’s well-known 'digital powerhouse,' recently ended with big success.

Korean companies’ participation in CTA online exhibition from July 14 to 16 was to promote the Korean companies' entry into ASEAN countries by the close support of MOIBA, introducing various content based on excellent technology and bringing a strong interest.

CTA is the largest ICT event with Asian Digital Content-related agencies, companies, and VCs, and according to the business agreement with IMDA in Singapore, it was held under the name of 'Asia Tech x Singapore 2021 (AT x SG)' this year.

According to a statement, about 329 global companies and over 8,200 attendees participated.

“The participation of Korean digital content companies getting its spotlight in its industry has brought success to this event. We expect strengthened interaction with the Korean digital content companies through this exhibition,” said an official of this event.

The host was very supportive of Korean companies participating in the online exhibition by opening of ‘Korea Pavilion-MOIBA special hall’ on the website; introducing participant companies’ products through demo session; and, holding AI Summit and webinar session to provide panel discussion and presentation to interchange and share insight for information such as Industry 4.0, 5G technology, IoT, and Quantum, among others.

In particular, 20 Korean companies and 37 overseas global companies participated in the non-contact export consultation performed as a prior programme for five days from July 5 to 9, conducting 156 consultation cases in total.

More details at https://www.connectechasia.com.

-- BERNAMA

UZABASE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM SPEEDA LAUNCHES EXPERT RESEARCH SERVICES IN ASEAN

SPEEDA FLASH Opinion - Top banner (Graphic: Business Wire)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 (Bernama) -- Uzabase Inc has announced its business intelligence platform SPEEDA is officially launching ‘Flash Opinion’ and ‘Expert Interview’ services in ASEAN.

Provided as part of the SPEEDA Expert Research suite of services, ‘Flash Opinion’ allows users to submit questions to and receive responses from experts within 24 hours, while ‘Expert Interview’ allows users to arrange and conduct interviews with experts.

SPEEDA Expert Research was first launched in the Japanese market in September last year as a new feature on the SPEEDA platform alongside the existing information on companies, industries, news, and trends, according to a statement.

Since launching SPEEDA Expert Research, the platform has partnered with a large number of experts residing outside of Japan.

There are currently 10,000 experts registered in Japan, 30,000 registered outside of Japan, and around 200,000 experts in its global alliance network.

This growth has allowed SPEEDA to build up a worldwide network of experts ready to provide answers on a wide range of topics involving many countries worldwide.

As a result, it has decided to launch these services aimed at Japanese and local companies in the ASEAN region, where it is seeing strong demand for expert services.

The number of countries where the service is available will gradually be expanded, starting with Singapore and Thailand.

Going forward, SPEEDA aims to continue expanding its network of experts as it seeks to create a one-stop platform that can assist users not only in the process of gathering and analysis of business information, but also for the formulation of future strategies.

More details at https://www.uzabase.com.

-- BERNAMA

ALPHA INNOMED-​CHINA RESOURCES PARTNERSHIP TO BRING MED-TECH INNOVATIONS TO CHINESE MARKET

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- Alpha Innomed Pte Ltd and China Resources (Shanghai) Medical Technology Co Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperating in the facilitation of technological, clinical, corporate and business development partnerships for international med-tech companies in China.

According to a statement, it is a key challenge for med-tech companies to bring their new and innovative products to the markets, in particular to those wide and distant markets, especially China.

The strategic partnership of China Resources (Shanghai) Medical Technology Co Ltd and Alpha Innomed Pte Ltd offers a strong platform for the med-tech companies to bring their innovative products to China.

It encloses a deep insight into the needs of Chinese healthcare system and a path to identify the novel medical technologies which match those needs.

It further incubates the selected products and leads them effectively and efficiently through the Chinese National Medical Products Administration certification process.

Ultimately, the products will access the market, through the powerful medical device distribution network under the roof of China Resources to reach a full and fast sales success.

Alpha Innomed Pte Ltd, a Singapore and Switzerland dual-headquartered organisation, devotes itself for accelerating the market reach for med-tech innovators through business digitalisation and applicable intelligence.

Meanwhile, China Resources (Shanghai) Medical Technology Co Ltd, a company under China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial Group Medical Devices Co Ltd, focuses on incubating and commercialising new medical devices on the Chinese Market.

More details at https://alpha-innomed.com.

-- BERNAMA

Topcon Corporation announces VISIA Imaging acquisition

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 -- Topcon Corporation, a leading provider of medical devices and software solutions for the global eye care community, announced it has acquired VISIA Imaging S.r.l, an ophthalmic device manufacturer headquartered in Florence, Italy.

The acquisition enhances Topcon’s development and manufacturing capabilities of anterior segment devices and software, which complements its strong portfolio of posterior segment imaging devices that includes fundus cameras and optical coherence tomography. 

According to a statement, the acquisition further reinforces Topcon’s position as a leading ophthalmic diagnostic device manufacturer.

Founded in 1993, VISIA specialises in the design, development, and manufacturing of anterior segment hardware and software.

The acquisition of VISIA will enable Topcon to create additional synergies within the company’s product portfolio, expand its product offering, and strengthen the Topcon Healthcare brand.

Furthermore, the acquisition gives Topcon Healthcare additional product design and development capabilities that will accelerate the release of new products and enable the company to better meet the needs of the market.

“With the integration of two companies, one Japanese and one Italian, with strengths in optical design, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing of medical devices, we continue to recognise our belief in enhancing synergistic effect combined with values of true reliability and innovative technology which come from both Topcon and VISIA.”

“I am very excited for a prosperous future in business with our ideal partner,” said Managing Executive Officer, Topcon Corporation, Fumio Ohue. 

In particular, the acquisition of VISIA will allow Topcon to address the growing epidemic of myopia by focusing on the development of myopia management solutions and strengthening collaborations with companies within the myopia treatment field.

-- BERNAMA

SYNCHRONOSS ADDS MARTIN BERNSTEIN TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Synchronoss Technologies Inc, a global leader and innovator of cloud, messaging and digital solutions, announced that Martin Bernstein has joined its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

According to a statement, Bernstein was appointed to the Board in connection with the recent recapitalisation of Synchronoss, and serves as a representative of B. Riley Financial Inc (B. Riley), the company’s largest shareholder.

“Marty’s extensive experience in capital allocation strategies, corporate governance and financing will serve our organisation well,” said Founder and Executive Chairman of the Synchronoss Board of Directors, Stephen Waldis.

“I have no doubt that his impressive knowledge and extraordinary track record will not only benefit our already strong board, but I fully expect his impact will be key to helping Synchronoss achieve its strategic growth objectives.”

Bernstein represents B. Riley Principal Investments, an affiliate of B. Riley that makes direct investments in companies with proven platform technologies with significant near-term growth potential.

He currently serves as Head of Private Investments at B. Riley and is responsible for sourcing, underwriting and managing company investments in addition to leading distribution to the firm's syndication partners.

Bernstein has extensive experience leading investments across technology, transportation, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, power, infrastructure, and other sectors.

Prior to joining B. Riley in March this year, Bernstein was with Anchorage Capital responsible for leading investments across capital structures, including public equities, private equity, performing credit, bank debt and distressed debt, and restructuring situations.

More details at www.synchronoss.com.

-- BERNAMA

Featurespace files 2 global patents to halt Enterprise Financial Crime

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 -- Featurespace, the leading provider of Enterprise Financial Crime prevention technology for fraud and anti-money laundering, has filed two global patents that will enable new levels of customer protection in the financial industry.

The first patent is for Featurespace’s Automated Deep Behavioral Networks for the card and payments industry. Automated Deep Behavioral Networks are a deep neural network architecture of connections and updates that recognise and prevent significantly more fraud cases.

Deep neural networks have revolutionised areas such as image recognition and text understanding by creating specific architectures (connections and weights) designed to extract meaning from the underlying data presented to the network.

Meanwhile, Featurespace’s second patent is for Behavioral Anomaly Score, which identifies anomalies in individual customer behaviour without having any prior knowledge of contextual high-risk behaviour.

This technology appreciably amplifies the ability to identify when a person’s behaviour is out of character without any labelled data, according to a statement.

“The Automated Deep Behavioral Networks patent and associated technologies deliver the right levels of model performance the industry needs to decrease fraud and protect consumer accounts before attacks happen,” said Featurespace founder, Dave Excell.

“The fight against fraudsters and the organisations that commit financial crime on a large scale is challenging and ever-evolving. 

“Technology, specifically machine learning will continue to be central in this fight and these two patents from Featurespace advance our leading market position and our capacity to help progressive financial institutions protect the consumer.”

Full public patent applications have been filed in the US, UK, EU and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

More details at www.featurespace.com.

-- BERNAMA

POLYPLASTICS DEVELOPS NEW TESTING METHOD TO IDENTIFY GAS FORMATION DURING INJECTION MOLDING

TOKYO, July 14, 2021 /Kyodo JBN-AsiaNet/ --
 

Polyplastics Co., Ltd., a leading global supplier of engineering thermoplastics, has developed a testing method that identifies gas formation during the injection molding process and helps to reduce mold deposits. The company's Gas Investigation Method in Injection Molding (GIMIM) facilitates continuous molding and improves production efficiency. Image1:  https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M100475/202107077399/_prw_PI1fl_Pl0lrF18.jpg During the injection molding process, harsh conditions (high temperature, high speed) and deterioration of plastic additives can release high volumes of decomposition gases. Mold deposits, gas burns, and short shots caused by pyrolysis gas can lead to quality problems, including undesirable effects on the dimensions and appearance of products, resulting in a higher defect rate. Maintaining highly efficient production operations is important as manufacturers work to meet today's highly challenging applications such as automotive electrification and automation. Polyplastics' proprietary method captures and evaluates the gases formed during molding and identifies the mechanism by which pyrolysis gas forms during injection molding. The innovative proprietary method traps gases according to mold-based methods, uses gas chromatography mass spectrometers (GC/MS) to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze their composition, identifies the gases that are formed, and makes fundamental improvements to the sources of their formation. This simple system configuration is divided into the three stages of plasticization, metering, and injection, and each unit is fitted with gas traps to seclude the gases that form within each part of the process. GIMIM can reflect the actual circumstances during molding by directly trapping and analyzing the gases formed during molding. GIMIM makes it possible to measure high-molecular-weight substances that can cause mold deposits. Since this method directly analyzes gases that are formed inside the mold during filling, the company believes it yields results that are closest to real-world conditions. In further research, Polyplastics plans to examine other problems caused by pyrolysis gas such as short shots and gas burn defects, as well as mold deposits. For more information, visit:  https://www.polyplastics.com/en/support/mold/gas_md/index.html About Polyplastics:  https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/attach/202107077399-O1-jJN6E3ZH.pdf Source: Polyplastics Co., Ltd. http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40528

NIPPON EXPRESS ITALIA ACQUIRES GDP CERTIFICATION FOR COMPANY-OWNED WAREHOUSE NEAR MILAN MALPENSA AIRPORT

TOKYO, July 14 (Bernama) -- Nippon Express Italia S.P.A. (hereinafter "NE Italy"), a local subsidiary of Nippon Express Co., Ltd., obtained Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification from the certification body CERTIQUALITY S.r.l., effective May 25, for its company-owned warehouse near Milan Malpensa Airport, evidencing its compliance with GDP standards for the proper distribution of pharmaceuticals established by the European Commission.

Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202107057256-O1-8WLOD7vP 

Photo: Warehouse interior https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202107057256/_prw_PI2fl_6BqC8KcY.jpg 

Italy is a key global manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, accounting for 12% of the world's pharmaceutical production and 22% of Europe's. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is a growth industry domestically as well, having achieved 168% growth over the past ten years.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40529

NON-CONTACT EXPORT CONSULTATION PERFORMED PRIOR TO SINGAPORE ICT EXHIBITION ‘CONNECTECHASIA’

KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (Bernama) -- The Korean digital content companies supported by MOIBA have successfully finished a non-contact export consultation with ASEAN countries recently.

The consultation was performed prior to the online Singapore ICT exhibition ‘CommunicAsia 2021-ConnecTechAsia (CTA)’ which is held from July 14 to 16 hosted by IMDA and sponsored by Informa Tech.

According to a statement, 20 digital content (DC) companies from Korea, a ‘digital powerhouse,’ are participating in the exhibition.

At the consultation for five days from July 5, 20 Korean DC companies and 37 agencies and companies in ASEAN countries including VCs were joined, bringing a spike of interest for the expansion of the industrial exchange in the future in various fields.

A CTA official said: “Most ASEAN countries are highly interested in the Korean DC industry, promoting an active digital transition policy. We expect that local buyers and Korean companies would establish good terms through this CTA online exhibition.”

CTA is the largest Asian ICT event with Asian DC-related agencies, companies, and VCs, and according to the business agreement with IMDA in Singapore, it will be held in the name of ‘Asia Tech x Singapore 2021 (AT x SG)’ this year.

Last year, it attracted about 320 global companies with a great number of 7,000 participants.

The host will open 'MOIBA hall' on the CTA website for the Korean companies and post various content of participating companies such as promotional videos, IR pitching videos, and a directory book, among others.

Moreover, non-contact Investor Relations (IR) pitching sessions will be open for companies in need of support for attracting investment, and the promotion for 'MOIBA hall' using local media and social media will also be carried out.

More details at https://www.connectechasia.com.

-- BERNAMA

NIPPON EXPRESS FRANCE WAREHOUSE NEAR PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT OBTAINS GDP CERTIFICATION

KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (Bernama) -- Nippon Express France, S.A.S. (NE France), a local subsidiary of Nippon Express Co Ltd has obtained Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification from the certification body Bureau Veritas Certification France, effective May 19.

This is for air and truck freight forwarding operations (including temporary storage services) at a company-owned warehouse located on the grounds of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, evidencing its compliance with GDP standards for the proper distribution of pharmaceuticals.

According to a statement, France is home to both world-famous pharmaceutical giants and numerous prominent pharmaceutical research organisations, having naturally become a base for the development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

NE France's temperature-controlled facilities (total area: 100 m2) equipped to maintain 2 - 8 C (refrigerated) and 15 - 25 C (fixed) temperature ranges within its company-owned warehouse will allow it to meet the logistics needs of customers in the pharmaceutical industry.

This is by combining temporary storage services using these facilities with Nippon Express's temperature-controlled international transport services.

Nippon Express will be further enhancing its services to meet increasingly sophisticated and diverse pharmaceutical logistics needs and bolstering its efforts on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, positioned as a priority industry in its current business plan.

More details at http://www.nipponexpress.com/

-- BERNAMA

REGISTRATION OPEN: "ASIA SPAC MANAGEMENT BOOTCAMP" JULY 15, 2021

MBP and Baker McKenzie confirm the panelist lineup for the virtual full-day SPAC conference for companies and dealmakers in Greater China, Southeast Asia, and India.

BEIJING, July 9 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Marcum Bernstein & Pinchuk LLP (MBP) and Baker McKenzie opened registration and confirmed the panelist lineup for the co-hosted virtual "Asia SPAC Management Bootcamp”. The event is confirmed for July 15th from 9 a.m. to 1:35 p.m. Hong Kong time. Discussions will feature management of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE)-funded private companies, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsors, private investment in public equity (PIPE) funds, investment banks, and SPAC advisors.

 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210708005925/en/

“SPACs are chasing deals in Asia right now. With more than 700 unicorns worldwide, half from China, these companies generate significant attention and drive value for the sponsor,” said MBP Co-Managing Partner Drew Bernstein. “The SPAC boom is poised for continued growth within and from Asia. With SPAC deals moving fast, Asian management teams and dealmakers are preparing to navigate regulations and maximize the open window.”

The panels will be conducted in English with simultaneous translation in Chinese.

·  A Guide for SPAC Sponsors: How to Launch a Successful SPAC IPO
·  The Short Side: How to Avoid Becoming the Subject of an Activist Short Campaign
·  Getting SPAC-ready: What You Must Do Now to Pursue a SPAC Merger
·  The PIPE Market: Validating Your Investment Story with Institutional Capital
·  SPACs for the Long Run: Outlook for SPACs from Southeast Asia, India, and Beyond
 
"SPAC dealmakers and target companies need to be aware of both the risks and opportunities in the market. There is significant upside for these types of deals, and proactively addressing risks can ensure such opportunities can be fully realized,” said Perrie Weiner, Partner-in-Charge, Los Angeles and Chair of the North America Securities Litigation Group at Baker McKenzie.

Private companies may register here. General registration is available here. 

About MBP

Marcum Bernstein & Pinchuk LLP (MBP) offers specialized audit and advisory services to support SPAC sponsors and SPAC targets in Asia. MBP and its parent company, Marcum LLP, have been involved in more SPAC transactions than any other audit firm. MBP is the only audit firm to have a dedicated SPAC team for Asia. MBP performs all audits for Marcum in Greater China, and MBP is a top-five auditor for Chinese companies listed in the United States. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40497

CBMA-INTERNATIONAL CCS KNOWLEDGE CENTRE COLLABORATION ON CO2 CAPTURE FOR CEMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Bernama) -- The China Building Materials Academy (CBMA) and Canadian-based, International CCS Knowledge Centre (Knowledge Centre) new collaboration will see simultaneous advancements in understanding and knowledge sharing of carbon capture technology designed specifically to see substantial emission reductions from the global cement industry.

The first initiative under the agreement, Carbon Capture Use Piloting with Cement Kiln Project will aid CBMA in applying the Knowledge Centre’s model and Front End Engineering Design (FEED) of a test platform - which has a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture capacity of approximately 155 kg CO2/per day.

According to a statement, the project will be built and piloted on a carbon capture system that utilises the post combustion flue gas from a producing cement kiln.

The Knowledge Centre will have an observer role to learn and gain insight on the characteristics of a cement kiln operation and its integration with a post combustion carbon capture system.

The agreement grants the Knowledge Centre access to the operational data, such as further design, testing, data based on the modelling, emission-related information, and any improvements made to the CO2 capture test platform.

This collaboration agreement is part of a bilateral science and technology cooperation between Canada and China, the China-Canada Science & Technology Cooperative Action Plan.

Through the carbon capture pilot platform, the CBMA is expected to adapt the application for potential scale-up to commercial demonstration with know-how that could be applied across the sizeable fleet of China National Building Materials Ltd, the world’s largest cement producer and the parent of CBMA.

The Knowledge Centre is currently completing a feasibility study on a full-scaled post-combustion carbon capture system on Lehigh’s Cement plant in Edmonton, Canada by applying the same model based on large-scale CCS experiences from the commercial coal-fired power plant, at the famed Canadian based Boundary Dam 3 CCS Facility.

More details at https://ccsknowledge.com/

-- BERNAMA

CHIBA PREFECTURAL GOVERNMENT TO HOLD ONLINE TOURS BY "CITY VOLUNTEERS" DURING TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES

CHIBA, Japan, July 9, 2021 /Kyodo JBN-AsiaNet/--

- Experiencing Japan through Virtual Tours -   The Chiba Prefectural Government will provide virtual tours arranged by "City Cast Chiba," an organization of "city volunteers" recruited by the local government, in August and September. Chiba Prefecture will host eight sporting events such as fencing, surfing and goalball at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The virtual tours are designed to help people, who had planned to enjoy local tours or excursions in areas around the Olympics and Paralympics venues, to enjoy alternative experiences. Programs in English, Chinese and Spanish will be posted on the Chiba Prefectural Government's website from mid-July. Those wishing to take part in the programs are required to apply through the website after confirming the programs of their choice. *Participants will be chosen on a first-come-first-served basis.   Image: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M102229/202106307042/_prw_PI1fl_sdl97845.png     Languages and Tour Schedule *Details of tours and their themes will be posted on the website, as listed below, once they are fixed. *Time is Japan time. *Each tour is limited to 15 participants.   - Tour No. 1 Language: Chinese (1) Aug. 15 (Sun), 2021, from 15:00 to 16:00 (2) Aug. 21 (Sat), 2021, from 11:00 to 12:00 (3) Aug. 29 (Sun), 2021, from 11:00 to 12:00   - Tour No. 2 Language: Spanish (1) Aug. 21 (Sat), 2021, from 20:00 to 21:00 (2) Aug. 22 (Sun), 2021, from 20:00 to 21:00   - Tour No. 3 Language: English (1) Aug. 5 (Thu), 2021, from 19:00 to 20:00 (2) Aug. 21 (Sat), 2021, from 18:00 to 19:00 (3) Sept. 4 (Sat), 2021, from 9:00 to 10:00   -Tour No. 4 Language: English (1) Aug. 5 (Thu), 2021, from 19:00 to 20:00 (2) Aug. 22 (Sun), 2021, from 9:00 to 10:00 (3) Sept. 5 (Sun), 2021, from 18:00 to 19:00   City Cast Chiba: Chiba Prefectural Government https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kkbunka/volunteer2020/en/index.html     Source: Chiba Prefectural Government  http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40499

​ISW HOLDINGS CLOSES ON ITS 1ST PHASE OF OVER 100MW GEORGIA CRYPTO MINING FARM CAPABLE OF DRIVING OVER $100M IN ANNUAL GROSS REVS

LAS VEGAS, July 8 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- ISW Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ISWH) (“ISW Holdings” or the “Company”), a global brand management holdings company, is excited to announce that it has finalized its land lease development agreement, which grants the Company full use of a 1st phase 7-acre parcel of property in Georgia tailored for cryptocurrency mining operations, complete with access to energy resources capable of powering over 100 MW of cryptocurrency mining capacity.

“This agreement puts us in position to scale up into a top-five global cryptocurrency mining position by volume,” remarked ISW Holdings President and Chairman, Alonzo Pierce. “We control an ideal plot of land, to initiate the 1st phase with additional access to over 100 megawatts of power for use in crypto mining. We also have our close partner Bit5ive, LLC – North America’s largest provider of collective management of renewable, clean energy services and mining equipment – right on premises to manage and develop the mining operations at the site. China is cracking down hard and shutting down its domestic crypto mining industry. This has enormous consequences because more than half of the world’s cryptocurrency mining has been taking place in China. As a result, we are already fielding calls from mining firms seeking a new home. We are now equipped to handle this at scale. We have the power!”

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40481

PubMatic hosts Envision: What’s Next For Addressability, July 14

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 -- PubMatic, a sell-side platform that delivers superior outcomes for digital advertising, has announced a major global virtual event entitled Envision: What’s Next For Addressability.

The event will stream more than 25 continuous hours of content for brands and publishers worldwide, putting addressability in the spotlight.

According to a statement, Envision is open to the public and will take place on July 14, beginning at 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) and ending at5pm Pacific Time (PT) in the US.

Envision attendees can join sessions featuring over 120 speakers, including industry leaders, experts, thinkers and dreamers from around the world, to discuss this pressing issue and debate the various paths to success.

Keynote speakers include media analyst Benedict Evans; Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU School of Business and serial entrepreneur; and, Kim Portrate, CEO of ThinkTV.

The event will focus on what the digital advertising community needs to do in order to build a stronger, more sustainable, addressable advertising ecosystem.

With cookie deprecation and other seismic shifts disrupting the landscape, buyers and sellers are testing alternative approaches to drive the privacy-centric, data driven advertising of the future.

“People are ready to build for their own sustainable future, and that requires a focus on audience addressability across critical digital advertising channels. This event brings the best minds together to discuss the right approach for addressability at scale -- now and for the future,” said PubMatic Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Rajeev Goel.

-- BERNAMA

BAKUAGE OFFERS OVER US$1 MILLION PRIZE TO SOLVE 84-YEAR-OLD MATH BRAINTEASER

KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 (Bernama) -- Bakuage Co Ltd headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, has announced offering a 120 million Japanese yen prize to anyone unravelling the Collatz conjecture, an unsolved mathematical problem.

According to a statement, 120 million Japanese yen is about US$1,085,000 which is based on US$1 = 110.50 Japanese yen as of June 29. (US$1 = RM4.160)

The Collatz conjecture repeatedly applying the following sequences will eventually result in 1: starting with any positive integer, divide it by 2 in the case of an even number and multiply it by 3 and add 1 in the case of any odd number.

The conjecture is named after Lothar Collatz, who introduced the idea in 1937. Since then, it has remained unsolved with its truth not yet verified.

Prize money is sometimes offered on an unsolved problem in mathematics. For example, a prize of US$1 million was posted for the solution to each of seven unsolved millennium problems announced by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000.

Bakuage decided on the latest prize, hoping to contribute to the development of mathematics. The company has chosen the Collatz conjecture because it thought many people can be easily interested in the problem, which itself is easy to understand.

A prize of 120 million Japanese yen will be paid to whoever has elucidated the truth of the Collatz conjecture.

For details, please visit the prize site at https://mathprize.net/posts/collatz-conjecture/

-- BERNAMA