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AnnouncementsMetaPresizeMeta acquired the startup Presize, a Munich-based specialist for calculating clothing sizes for online shops.

The tool is integrated directly on shop websites, where users must answer questions about their bodies and record a short smartphone video of themselves. Presize scans presumably 55% more accurately than competing products and provides, according to its CEO Leon Szeli. In this way, multiple orders for fitting and thus costly returns are to be minimized. More than a million customers have already used the tool.

Meta is said to have been particularly interested in the startup's technology, and therefore wants to take over only the developers from Presize. Presize had to go through a strict selection process with, for example, knowledge tests about artificial intelligence. However, the Presize brand is to disappear completely and be merged ultimately into the meta group.

Currently, it can only be speculated about the purchase price; however, there was a comparable deal last year when Snap took over the Berlin Presize competitor Fit Analytics for around EUR 114 million


AppointmentsShutterstockShutterstock, Inc. announced Jason McClelland is joining the Company's leadership team and Executive Committee as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and Christopher ‘Skip’ Wilson is joining as the Company's Vice President of Brand Marketing.

As CMO, Jason brings over two decades of experience, including leadership roles at SaaS leaders Adobe and Salesforce, as well as serving as Chief Marketing Officer at hyper-growth startups Algolia, Domino Data Lab, and Heroku. At Adobe, Jason held leadership roles that helped Adobe's transformations: first with building their Marketing Cloud business, the industry's first end to end marketing platform for CMOs; and then second with building Adobe's Creative Cloud SaaS transformation.

Skip comes to Shutterstock from Peloton, where he led Peloton's Global Brand and Communications for their Commercial business. As Vice President of Brand Marketing, Skip Wilson will be responsible for Shutterstock's global brand strategy by overseeing the strategic positioning and growth of the Shutterstock brand. He will lead the communication of the Company's unique value proposition through powerful go-to-market campaigns and thought leadership to drive revenue growth and attract top-tier talent to Shutterstock.

Bringing on Jason and Skip continues Shutterstock's investment into broadening its software, content, and custom creative capabilities that uniquely position Shutterstock in the industry to own the end-to-end creative flow for companies.


AppointmentsXREXEx-Fed risk specialist Michael Shing joined blockchain neo fintech company XREX Inc. as its Director of Risk Management.

XREX facilitates remittances, receivables, and international payouts daily, providing users with a secure, low-cost, and real-time payment method. The company also helps merchants in emerging markets resolve US dollar liquidity shortages by offering stable coins as a mode of clearing and settlement.

Shing spent more than a decade with the Federal Reserve branches in San Francisco and New York, first as an analyst then a senior risk specialist. Prior to his time with the Fed, Shing held several positions in the private sector in New York and Hong Kong.

Shing joins at an important point of the company's journey as XREX expands its markets and financial solutions to more users in India, Africa, the Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

As Director of Risk Management, Shing will oversee the analysis and modelling of the operation and business risks as XREX broadens its product offerings and exposure across various markets. Together with the management team, Shing will build thought leadership through regulatory research and outreach, establishing XREX as a force in driving blockchain adoption and integration with traditional banking systems.

During his tenure at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF), Shing was involved in ensuring the safety of the largest banking institutions in the United States by assessing risk management practices including risk governance, risk appetite, and strategy. His area of focus included Treasury-related risks such as liquidity and interest rate, asset-liability management, and investment portfolio. Prior to that, Shing led the implementation of a variety of vendor models at the New York Fed, providing timely stress-testing analysis, and reporting on investment securities portfolios across several asset classes.

Shing will further XREX's longstanding commitment toward security and compliance, mitigating the company's risk as it continues to provide users with a safe and reliable platform for all their banking needs.

Just three month ago, XREX acquired Canada's Money Services Business (MSB) license, being the only Taiwan-based firm to have done so. More recently, XREX became compliant with Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) after completing the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) report filing. XREX is in the process of applying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a Major Payment Institution license, which will allow XREX to conduct money transfers, business payments, and digital payment token services.


AnnouncementsKlaytnKlaytn Foundation, a dominant metaverse blockchain ecosystem backed by internet giant Kakao Corp, has announced the onboarding of Alameda Research as a strategic partner and investor into the Klaytn blockchain ecosystem.

Recently introduced as one of the newest members of the Klaytn Governance Council, Alameda Research is a leading quantitative crypto trading firm and venture investor, and the brainchild of Sam Bankman-Fried — co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange, FTX, and one of the youngest billionaires in the world.

The extension of the partnership will mean greater involvement by Alameda Research to support the growth and development of the Klaytn ecosystem. This includes further investments into early-stage projects built on Klaytn, as well as connections to its global network of top-level funds and exchanges.


AppointmentsArchetypeIn line with the agency’s growth plans, Archetype Singapore has hired Charlene Xiao as senior digital consultant, to spur the growth of the office’s digital marketing practice.

Charlene, who joined in January 2022 from Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), will be responsible for account leadership and senior client counsel on some of Archetype’s most prominent existing digital marketing and social media remits, whilst working closely with Archetype Singapore’s Head of Digital, Julian Chow, to put the necessary structures and processes in place for the continued development of the agency’s skills, commercials and people.

Charlene’s expertise spans digital and social strategy, working with clients to set up integrated campaign builds. Trained in PR for over two years, and subsequently digital strategies, Charlene brings six years of hybrid experience running integrated programs and campaigns. She has also joined industry competitions the Cannes Young Lions Competition in 2019 and the PRCA World Cup in 2021, achieving stellar results amongst peers in Asia. Charlene’s client work on integrated technology and healthcare campaigns in the past has also won several industry awards.


AnnouncementsPlugandPlayGlobal innovation platform Plug and Play announced that AboitizPower, a leading energy company in the Philippines, will be its newest anchor partner of the ‘Smart Cities Innovation Program’ in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

AboitizPower will work hand in hand with Plug and Play APAC to discover new technologies and trends to accelerate its 10-year renewable energy growth strategy to achieve a 50:50 balance mix between its thermal and renewable portfolios by 2030. The partnership will also boost AboitizPower's digitalization strategy, which is a key driver of its sustainable energy transformation journey.

Plug and Play's Smart Cities startups will now be able to work alongside AboitizPower and collaborate on new ideas and relationships towards its '4D's Modern Energy System strategy including Decarbonization, Digitalization, Decentralization and Democratization. Some of the key focus areas this year include Hydrogen, DERs & Virtual Power Plants, Energy Marketplace Platform, Carbon Capture & Storage and EV/EV Infrastructure.


AnnouncementsTeamViewerTeamViewer, a global leading provider of remote connectivity and workplace digitalization solutions, opened its Asia Pacific regional headquarters office in Singapore.

TeamViewer is a leading global technology company that provides a connectivity platform to remotely access, control, manage, monitor, and repair devices of any kind – from laptops and mobile phones to industrial machines and robots. Although TeamViewer is free of charge for private use, it has more than 625,000 subscribers and enables companies of all sizes and from all industries to digitize their business-critical processes through seamless connectivity. Against the backdrop of global megatrends like device proliferation, automation and new work, TeamViewer proactively shapes digital transformation and continuously innovates in the fields of Augmented Reality, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Since the company’s foundation in 2005, TeamViewer’s software has been installed on more than 2.5 billion devices around the world.


AppointmentsTonikThe Philippines' first neobank Tonik, announced that former Google HR Director for Japan and Asia-Pacific (JAPAC) and Meta (Facebook) Director of User Operations, Manoj Varghese, has officially joined the transformative digital bank as Chief People Officer.


Varghese will spearhead the continuous growth and cultural integration of one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing and sought-after fintech companies.

During his run at Google, Varghese led the set up and expansion of the tech giant's JAPAC headquarters in Singapore primarily hiring and onboarding the regional leadership team. This enabled Google to further grow its Engineering, Sales, and Operations teams not just in Singapore locally, but also across the Asia Pacific.

Similarly, Varghese also led and executed notable wins for Meta (Facebook) during his three-year stint at the tech giant—building and managing the community operations team, and working closely with global product, engineering, and policy team members to support over 1 billion Facebook users.

Varghese recently completed the Sloan Fellow Programme at the London Business School.

Having built credible strategic teams, expanded business presence across different countries, and worked in and led multi-cultural environments, Varghese is excited to join the passionate team at Tonik and help strengthen their mission of revolutionizing the banking scene in Southeast Asia.

Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC). Its unique cloud-based solution is powered by global financial technology leaders such as Mastercard, Amazon Web Services, and Finastra.


AppointmentsSYSPROGlobal Enterprise Resource Planning software provider, SYSPRO announced the appointment of Sridharan Arumugam as new Vice President for SYSPRO in Asia.

He will lead SYSPRO's business in the Asian region, reporting to APAC CEO, Rob Stummer, with a mandate to drive the manufacturing and distribution technology specialist's growth strategy across the region.

Sridharan is based in Kuala Lumpur and will lead SYSPRO in key countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, and other SEA countries including Vietnam and Thailand.

Part of Sri's role will be to focus on managing both growth and profitability in the region and also to continue to cultivate SYSPRO's customer-centric culture, by strengthening its partner ecosystem in Asia. His expertise in guiding Asian customers through their digitalization journey has provided him with invaluable knowledge regarding the optimal implementation strategy to introduce advanced Industry 4.0 technologies to Asian manufacturers and distributors.

Prior to joining SYSPRO, Sridharan held two key executive positions including President for Southeast Asia at ProV in Kuala Lumpur and he spent 24 years at IFS Asia Pacific as Vice President for Southeast Asia. He has a Bachelor of Engineering from University Putra, Malaysia.


AppointmentsBinanceBinance announced the appointment of Rohit Wad, former Corporate VP at Microsoft, as its CTO, and Mayur Kamat, former Agoda VP of Product, as Head of Product.

Wad will be responsible for engineering scalable, compliant and fast Web3 services and solutions. He will also be responsible for ensuring the continued security, stability, and liquidity of the exchange while meeting the evolving regulatory compliance requirements across regions where the platform is available. In addition, Wad will focus on significantly expanding the engineering team to accelerate the organization's progress. Wad joins Binance with over 30 years of experience in engineering and development. Prior to Binance and Microsoft, Wad served as an Engineering Director at Facebook and Google. Wad was one of the key players behind the development of Microsoft Teams and Skype.

Kamat will lead every aspect of Binance's product strategy, roadmap and development. He will guide the team to build products that will bring mass adoption to crypto and lower the barrier to entry to Web3 technology. Both Wad and Kamat will focus on making Web3 services more accessible and usable to everyday people and driving innovation within the Binance ecosystem.

Kamat brings to Binance 20 years of experience in tech and product. Previously, Kamat served as the VP of Product at Agoda where he oversaw the company's supply, finance and marketplace products. Prior to that, he led product teams at Hiya and Google. Kamat was behind the product team that developed Gmail for mobile, Android for Work, Hangouts, Google Voice, and Windows DRM.


AppointmentsYahooYahoo announced a leadership update, promoting John McNerney to Senior Director of Platforms for APAC and Dan Richardson as Head of Data for APAC.

In his previous role, McNerney was Director of Platforms, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). As part of his expanded remit, he will oversee the commercial and technology strategy underpinning Yahoo’s ad platforms and unified ad tech stack and grow Yahoo’s omnichannel capabilities across flourishing channels like CTV and DOOH across the region. APAC has been a key growth driver for Yahoo’s advertising business globally. Under McNerney’s leadership, Yahoo will build on the growth and demand for its ad tech solutions in the region.

Richardson was previously Head of Data for ANZ. In his expanded role, Dan will lead Yahoo's data solutions and commercial strategy for APAC. Richardson’s responsibilities will include developing omnichannel partnerships, audience insights, segmentation, testing and implementation strategies for APAC. His larger mandate will be to strengthen Yahoo’s market-leading data proposition in the region, especially relevant as advertisers look to connect the dots in a cookie-less world.

The news follow the recent announcement of Paul Sigaloff’s elevation as VP, Head of APAC for Yahoo.