Tech Bites: Week of October 14, 2019

Ogury enters APAC

Digital marketing company Ogury is officially expanding into Asia-Pacific with the launch of a regional headquarters in Singapore, four months after hiring Integral Ad Science’s former SEA managing director Niall Hogan.

Hogan, who has experience launching regional businesses, will lead Ogury’s operations in the region as managing director of Southeast Asia. He has already hired eight people in the region and expects to grow the team to 20 employees in 2020. Hogan left IAS in February following its sale to private equity firm Vista Equity Partners.

Appier buys Tokyo AI firm Emotion Intelligence

Artificial intelligence firm Appier has acquired Tokyo-based AI solutions provider Emotion Intelligence (Emin). Founded in 2011, Emin’s platform uses AI to identify which customers will definitely make a purchase and those who definitely will not. It focuses particularly on shoppers who are undecided but likely to purchase with an additional incentive in the form of a coupon with limited validity, encouraging a faster transaction. The acquisition will allow Appier to provide a more comprehensive suite of AI-powered marketing tools to engage consumers across multiple channels and devices.

CleverTap raises cash for SEA push

US-based mobile marketing platform, CleverTap, with a regional headquarters in Singapore and a presence in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia has announced a US$35 million (S$48,000,000) raise in its Series C investment round, led by Tiger Global Management and Sequoia India. The funding will be used to fuel further expansion in Southeast Asia and for product development to enhance predictive capabilities  and boost team growth across engineering, business development, sales and marketing functions.

Alibaba's Youku, BBC, Genius & Viacom team up on kids shows

Alibaba Group's streaming platform Youku has struck partnerships with global entertainment companies BBC Studios, Genius Brands and Viacom International Media Networks to co-produce and distribute a series of children’s animations. The platform signed formal agreements with the studios at TV conference Mipcom this week. The deal with BBC Studios involves distributing content from its kids’ channel, CBeebies, the agreement with VIMN includes a multiyear partnership in producing, distributing and developing merchandise for an original animated series with the working title 'Little Luban', while Youku will partner with Genius Brands International to co-produce Stan Lee’s animated action-adventure series 'Superhero Kindergarten'.

Isentia pilots media monitoring in Singapore

Media intelligence firm Isentia is piloting a media monitoring service in Singapore, offering clients the opportunity to receive text messages about their media mentions approximately four minutes after the television or radio broadcast. The Live Alerts service will cover Channel News Asia TV and radio. The service has been available in Australia and New Zealand since early 2019, delivering more than 17,000 alerts each month across both countries.

The Trade Desk opens global doors for BlueMedia Group

The Trade Desk has formed a partnership with BlueMedia Group, the strategic business segment of China's BlueFocus, to offer overseas marketing for Chinese brands. As part of the agreement, The Trade Desk will provide BlueMedia with a real-time bidding marketplace covering multiple formats and devices outside of China.

Qualtrics relaunches CoreXM

Customer experience platform Qualtrics has relaunched its Qualtrics Research Core product as CoreXM. The rebranded product encapsulates all the capabilities of its predecessor while adding new enterprise capabilities. These include AI-powered data quality checks, the ability to customise XM workflows, upgraded governance controls, and built in conjoint analysis.

Sportsradar acquires Optima

Sports data provider Sportradar has acquired sports betting and gaming omnichannel platform business Optima. Optima will extend Sportradar’s current betting services portfolio to become a full service B2B data, betting, trading and player management platform business.

Zensung & Tugu Insurance partner on new app

Singaporean InsurTech company Zensung has partnered with Indonesian insurance company Tugu Insurance to offer a digital insurance app that incorporates artificial intelligence and internet of things (IoT) capabilities.