Grab Holdings is done dabbling in consumer lending. The Nasdaq-listed superapp operator has announced that it will pay US$1.49 billion in cash for a controlling 60 per cent stake in Atome Financial, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) and digital lending arm of Advance Intelligence Group (AIGL). It is, by some distance, the biggest fintech […] The post Grab’s US$1.49B Atome deal signals a deeper race for SEA’s credit economy appeared first on e27.

e27

2h agoe27.co

World

Ecosystem Roundup: Amilo’s fourth buyout in four years bets on cross-border shipping

Amilo has completed its fourth acquisition in four years, folding Vietnam-based cross-border specialist SG Link into its network as it chases a bigger prize: becoming the operating layer for Southeast Asian merchants selling overseas. SG Link, now rebranded ShipX, connects sellers to more than 220 destinations and pools shipment volumes so smaller exporters can access freight rates […] The post Ecosystem Roundup: Amilo’s fourth buyout in four years bets on cross-border shipping appeared first on

e27

5h agoe27.co

WorldThailand

TrueMoney and Fireblocks want Thai users on blockchain rails without them noticing

Southeast Asia’s e-wallet giants have spent a decade making digital payments boring, in the best sense. Tap to pay, scan a QR code, top up a prepaid line: no jargon, no friction, no need to understand what happens underneath. Now TrueMoney wants to apply the same trick to blockchain. The Ascend Money-backed fintech, Thailand’s leading […] The post TrueMoney and Fireblocks want Thai users on blockchain rails without them noticing appeared first on e27.

e27

6h agoe27.co

World

OpenAI hires former Elastic and Snowflake exec Sanjay Deshmukh to lead Asia Pacific sales

OpenAI has appointed Sanjay Deshmukh as its first Vice President of Asia Pacific sales, a hire that signals the ChatGPT maker is moving beyond product launches and into the harder work of building an enterprise sales machine across one of its fastest-growing markets. Based in Singapore, Deshmukh will lead OpenAI’s commercial efforts across the region […] The post OpenAI hires former Elastic and Snowflake exec Sanjay Deshmukh to lead Asia Pacific sales appeared first on e27.

e27

9h agoe27.co

World

The CLARITY Act vote could send crypto to US$2.73T or crash it to US$2.6T

Asian and global stocks declined today as the benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield climbed above the critical five per cent threshold. That level pressures risk assets because it raises the discount rate applied to future corporate earnings. Semiconductor shares sold off sharply, dragging technology-heavy indices from Tokyo to New York. Investors are weighing two overlapping […] The post The CLARITY Act vote could send crypto to US$2.73T or crash it to US$2.6T appeared first on e27.

e27

9h agoe27.co

World

The 90-second pitch that helps foreign founders crack Tokyo’s networking scene

For all the talk of Tokyo’s growing openness to international founders, language still shapes how quickly doors open in Japan’s startup community. English-friendly meetups and conferences are far more common than they were a decade ago, but according to a new guide from Blackbox JP, the first few sentences a founder says in Japanese, however […] The post The 90-second pitch that helps foreign founders crack Tokyo’s networking scene appeared first on e27.

e27

10h agoe27.co

World

The geopolitics of scarcity: Why middle powers must learn to prioritise

When Keir Starmer recently argued that Britain must rebuild its hard power, much of the discussion focused on defence spending. That is understandable. After years of underinvestment, Britain faces difficult choices about military capability at a time of growing geopolitical instability. But money is only part of the challenge. Britain’s more fundamental foreign policy problem […] The post The geopolitics of scarcity: Why middle powers must learn to prioritise appeared first on e27.

e27

11h agoe27.co

GPT-6 Astra cuts AI task time nearly in half. It still can’t fix your audience data

OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra on September 3, and the number marketers should actually care about isn’t a reasoning score — it’s a stopwatch. In OpenAI’s own computer-use simulation, Astra finishes a task in roughly 40 minutes against about 75 minutes for its predecessor, GPT-5.6 Sol — nearly half the time for the same job. It […] The post GPT-6 Astra cuts AI task time nearly in half. It still can’t fix your audience data appeared first on e27.

e27

12h agoe27.co

World

The SaaSpocalypse will be selective

Every AI lab telling you software is about to write itself runs its company on Slack. These are the people closest to the frontier. They say agents will soon build anything you can describe. And yet they haven’t replaced their own chat app. Or their CRM. Or their payroll. If “just build it yourself” made […] The post The SaaSpocalypse will be selective appeared first on e27.

e27

12h agoe27.co

What Southeast Asia’s edutech startups can learn from AI’s limits in education

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the education conversation. For schools, teachers, students, and education technology companies, generative AI offers obvious possibilities: faster feedback, personalised explanations, automated administrative work, and new ways to create learning materials. But the most important question for edutech companies may not be what AI can do. It may be […] The post What Southeast Asia’s edutech startups can learn from AI’s limits in education appear

e27

13h agoe27.co

How to use AI to win (Hint: It has nothing to do with being more productive)

AI is automating tasks that used to take hours for humans to do. It’s pushing some costs down and it’s making some teams more productive. Don’t make the mistake, however, of thinking that using AI to do things more productively is enough to ensure your business has a competitive edge and succeeds. If you strip […] The post How to use AI to win (Hint: It has nothing to do with being more productive) appeared first on e27.

e27

13h agoe27.co

World

Amilo acquires SG Link to widen cross-border shipping for SEA sellers

For many Southeast Asian merchants, selling overseas has never been a question of demand alone. A small brand in Vietnam, Indonesia or Thailand may find buyers on Amazon, eBay, Shopify or social platforms, but the harder problem begins after checkout: paperwork, duties, customs clearance, tracking gaps and freight rates designed for companies shipping far larger […] The post Amilo acquires SG Link to widen cross-border shipping for SEA sellers appeared first on e27.

e27

22h agoe27.co

World

MoneyHero’s Q2 exposes the rising cost of fintech growth in Southeast Asia

MoneyHero’s latest earnings tell two stories. The first is the one the NASDAQ-listed fintech aggregator wants investors to focus on: artificial intelligence automation, better approval rates, and a more efficient operating model. The second sits deeper in the numbers: falling revenue, weaker user traffic, wider losses, and a sharp rise in cash incentives used to […] The post MoneyHero’s Q2 exposes the rising cost of fintech growth in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

e27

1d agoe27.co

WorldAsia

Tesla establishes Vietnam subsidiary as EV rivalry with VinFast looms

Tesla has formally established a Vietnamese subsidiary, marking a small but closely watched step into one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic electric vehicle markets. According to a filing on Vietnam’s National Business Registration Portal dated September 12, Tesla Motors Vietnam LLC has been incorporated in Ho Chi Minh City with charter capital of VND77.7 billion […] The post Tesla establishes Vietnam subsidiary as EV rivalry with VinFast looms appeared first on e27.

e27

1d agoe27.co

World

The Fed is the real crypto story, Bitcoin and Ethereum are just following

We have entered a cautious stretch. Bitcoin has slipped 0.72 per cent over the past 24 hours to US$76,697.14. Ethereum has fallen harder, down 1.95 per cent to US$2,474.93. This pullback reflects a broader market decline of 0.99 per cent. The dominant force behind this move is macro uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve’s September […] The post The Fed is the real crypto story, Bitcoin and Ethereum are just following appeared first on e27.

e27

1d agoe27.co