AIS-X is an exchange that offers more than just a cryptocurrency trading service. The Japanese founders of AIS, Mr. Takigawa and Mr. Kondo, focused their attention on the future expansion of use of cryptocurrency and blockchains, as well as the growth of the Mongolian economy, and they made the most of their excellent network of connections in Mongolia to start the AIS business. Striving to enhance customer convenience, AIS-X has established business partnerships with local financial institutions to achieve the goal of an integrated financial service. Three financial institutions have entered into partnerships with AIS-X.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181220005218/en/

Correlation Diagram of AIS Project and Business Partner Entities (Graphic: Business Wire)

The 1st financial institution is National Investment Bank of Mongolia (hereinafter “NI BANK”). In 2014, NI BANK received the award of “Fastest Growing Customer Service in Mongolia” from the Mongolian Bankers Association, and in 2015, it received the “Fastest Growing Corporate Bank in Mongolia” award from the Global Banking and Financial Review. Through the partnership with NI BANK, AIS-X’s clients will be able to make deposits and withdrawals in legal tender from all around the world, and the option of managing fixed-term deposits with high interest (e.g. USD, EUR, MNT, CNY, JPY) will be provided. Also, by making it possible to issue NI BANK debit cards, AIS-X will strive to further enhance customer convenience when making withdrawals.

The 2nd financial institution is National Securities. National Securities is a securities company that holds a full license enabling it to be the lead manager for an IPO. Through the partnership with National Securities, AIS-X’s clients will be able to buy and sell securities around the world. Looking ahead, there are plans for a securities trading service where AIS-X exchange tokens are used directly.

The 3rd financial institution is Express Finance Service (hereinafter “EFS”). EFS is an institution that conducts loan operations. Through the partnership with EFS, AIS-X’s clients will be able to receive loans in cryptocurrency and legal tender, using cryptocurrency as collateral. By making use of such loans, clients will no longer need to sell the cryptocurrency in their possession in situations where funds are required, releasing them from the tax risk involved at the time of selling.

AIS-X also offers an AI Concierge service, where AI analyzes the behavioral characteristics of users and provides investment advice best suited to each user’s individual character. The strength of AIS is that, through this technology, it can attract beginners and other users who are not good at making investments.
For details, please watch the following video:
https://youtu.be/f8ApLLtuLYQ

At AIS-X, exchange tokens called “AIS” are issued. In addition to the integrated financial service, it also operates two types of mining businesses (Double Mining), and the system is that part of the profits from these businesses is distributed to holders of AIS tokens.

The 1st business is cryptocurrency mining. Mongolia’s electricity costs are low compared to many countries, and combined with a cold climate, it is a country ideally suited to cryptocurrency mining. AIS-X has specially customized Baikal’s mining machines, enabling mining to be conducted at rates of maximum efficiency.

In the 2nd business, AIS-X conducts resource (mine) mining, making it the first cryptocurrency exchange in the world to perform such activities. Mongolia has abundant underground resources, and there are reserves of rare metals that are vital to industry, such as gold, silver, and molybdenum. AIS-X is negotiating a partnership with Mongolia’s largest mining company Sharyn Gol JSC, and it will be involved in resource mining projects through direct investment.

List of AIS-X Business Partners

• NI Bank https://www.nibank.mn/
• National Securities http://www.nationalsecurities.mn/
• Express Finance Service http://m.exchange.mn/
• Sharyn Gol JSC http://sharyngol.mn/

Regarding AIS Tokens
Sale prices: 0.04USD (PRESALE STAGE1) - 0.2USD (PRESALE STAGE10)
Final token sale price: 0.3USD
For detailed information, please consult the following URL:

• AIS Official Website: https://ais-x.io/

Starting from Christmas, AIS-X is launching an Airdrop Campaign where AIS tokens up to a maximum value of 10,000 dollars can be received.

• AIS Airdrop Campaign: https://airdrop.ais-x.io

AIS Official Social Media Accounts are as follows:

• Official Telegram: https://t.me/aisofficial
• Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/aisx_official
• Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AISXOFFICIAL

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181220005218/en/

Suhas Gopinath, Co-founder of HappyEMI; Ankur Jain, Founder of Kairos Society; Anand Sankeshwar, Co-founder of HappyEMI

This year Kairos Society recognized HappyEMI as one of the top 50 innovative start-ups in the world at its annual Global K50 Summit held at One World Trade Center observatory in New York City. HappyEMI was also featured by the Inc. Magazine as one of the top 50 emerging companies in the world.

The Kairos Society is specifically recognizing HappyEMI which is a Fintech start-up focussed into digital lending, for the way that the firm helps consumers make their most important purchases in offline and online stores affordable through its Digital EMI Card focussed on the new to credit and mid prime customers in India. HappyEMI uses alternate data such as bank statements, mobile data, loyalty cards, etc to assess the customer’s risk in less than a minute and approve a credit limit for them to use it at partner stores to buy mobile phone, healthcare treatments, furniture’s, home appliances, etc at 0% EMI as the partner stores pay HappyEMI commission to finance the purchases for their customers. This comes with a cheque from US $50,000 from Kairos Fund to help HappyEMI achieve its vision to make finance affordable and accessible which is been the theme for Kairos Global Summit this year.

HappyEMI which is based in Bangalore, India is a year-old start-up co-founded by Suhas Gopinath, who was formerly the CEO of Globals Inc., and Anand Sankeshwar. Its investors includes AJ Ventures, JIIF Fund and Yang Shu, who was former President of Huawei.

Kairos Society, which is a society for young entrepreneurs worldwide helps entrepreneurs get access to mentors and investors and helps them to solve global problems such as affordable finance, housing, education and healthcare.

“HappyEMI is re-inventing the credit card and building a platform to make it financially inclusive for the aspirational youth in India to get access to credit to finance their most important purchases and does responsible lending with 0% interest when they shop at partner stores” said Suhas Gopinath, CEO of HappyEMI. “We are thrilled to be part of the K50 List by the Kairos Society and its great encouragement and validation of our mission to make credit accessible and affordable and keeping our team energized” said Anand Sankeshwar, Co-founder of HappyEMI.

During the Summit, HappyEMI presented before 150 of today’s most influential CEOs, industry leaders, media, and global VCs and Family Offices. The event is designed as an immersive experience showing the pain points affecting the lives of consumers, and how companies and others in attendance are working to address these global challenges. Companies are organized into five core sectors: Spaces, Finance, Education, Health, and Emerging Tech. Kairos has helped K50 companies raise over USD 1 billion till date.

Akshay Mehrotra, Co- Founder and CEO of EarlySalary with the team at the new SmartOffice

• Instant access to funds in less than 10 minutes
• High Automation: 73% loans are Machine Approved & instantly disbursed
• Loans of values ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 2 Lac cash can be accessed for a tenor of 50 days to 2 years.
• Shop now and pay later - ability to use the loan limit to shop online on credit on Amazon, Flipkart & BigBazaar.
• Travel now and pay later – ability to use the loan limit to book holidays, air tickets & hotels on MakeMyTrip and Yatra.
• FeES: education loans to pay for your child’s school fees & education needs or pay for a skill upgradation course.

• Newly listed combined entity of Max Healthcare and Radiant with an equity valuation of INR 7,242 crs will be promoted by Abhay Soi and co-promoted by global investment firm KKR
• Max India to demerge its non-healthcare businesses into a new listed entity

1. Prior to the merger transaction involving Radiant and Max Healthcare, Max India will demerge its non- healthcare businesses (comprising of Max Bupa and Antara Senior Living) into a new wholly owned subsidiary of Max India whose shares will be listed separately on both BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited.
2. This new company will be spun off, and shareholders of Max India will receive one share of INR 10/- each of the new company for every five shares of Rs 2/- each that they hold in existing Max India.
3. Following the demerger and the spin-off, Radiant’s healthcare assets will be demerged into Max Healthcare which will then undertake a reverse merger with Max India to create Merged Max Healthcare (“Combined Entity” or “Merged Entity”). As a result of the reverse merger, shareholders of Max India will receive 99 shares of the Merged Entity of INR 10/- each for every 100 share of INR 2/- each that they hold in Max India.
4. Post-merger, Max India will get dissolved without being wound up and subsequently the equity shares of the Merged Entity will get listed on both BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited.
5. Based on the share exchange ratio recommended in the valuation report issued by S.R. Batliboi & Co LLP and B.S.R Associates LLP, the resultant shareholding of the Combined Entity will be 51.9%, 23.2% and 7.0% (post sale of 4.99% as mentioned below) held by KKR, Abhay Soi and Max Promoters respectively, with the balance being held by public and other shareholders.

• One of the top three hospital chains in India
• Attractively positioned in two large healthcare markets
• Well recognized local brands
• Promoter led strong leadership team
• Balanced vintage mix of hospitals
• Track record of robust financial performance
• Significant potential to extract cost savings, realize synergies and improve margins
• Strong platform to consolidate through acquisitions of attractive healthcare assets

Akshay Mehrotra, Co- Founder and CEO of EarlySalary with the team at the new SmartOffice

• Instant access to funds in less than 10 minutes
• High Automation: 73% loans are Machine Approved & instantly disbursed
• Loans of values ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 2 Lac cash can be accessed for a tenor of 50 days to 2 years.
• Shop now and pay later - ability to use the loan limit to shop online on credit on Amazon, Flipkart & BigBazaar.
• Travel now and pay later – ability to use the loan limit to book holidays, air tickets & hotels on MakeMyTrip and Yatra.
• FeES: education loans to pay for your child’s school fees & education needs or pay for a skill upgradation course.

Atom Solutions, a Fin-Tech company located in Japan, will launch their newly developed world’s lowest overseas remittances fee service starting March 1st 2019.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181225005003/en/

EVOR (Graphic: Business Wire)

The service is applied with unique wallet system which is different from traditional bank remittance services such as SWIFT or Correspondent Bank. Initially, the service will be available between South Korea and the Philippines during its initial stage. However, Atom Solutions is aiming to expand the service over 10 countries in the year 2019.

* The exchange rate is applied with middle rate of interbank rate (TTM) +0.5%
* Sending Fee is approx 5 cents

Atom Solutions Co., Ltd.
https://www.atom-solutions.jp/en/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181225005003/en/

As the United States Investing Championship gets set to restart on December 31, 2018, a surprising number of the entrants are coming from overseas.

Perhaps that is because of the recent steep drop in U.S. markets. The other interesting fact is that a significant number of the participants appear to be followers of Mark Minervini, a former United States Investing Championship winner.

The United States Investing Championship previously ran from 1983 to 1993. It attracted such legendary traders as Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, Dr. Edward O. Thorpe, Mark Strome, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Doug Kass, Sheen Kassouf, Marty Schwartz, Frankie Joe, Tom Basso, Cedd Moses, Gil Blake, Robert Prechter, Jr., and Bruno Combier.

Each participant must specify a real account number for an account of $20,000 or more, on or before December 31, 2018. If the participant does well, they submit copies of their brokerage statements at the end of each quarter. There is also a competition for accounts of $1 million or more, called Money Manager Verified Ratings. Top performers will be separated into different divisions based on the volatility of their accounts. The one-time entry fee for the United States Investing Championship is $350, while the one-time entry fee for Money Manager Verified Ratings is $1,000.

Prior top finishers have been covered in virtually every financial publication, from the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, to Forbes, Money, and Fortune, to the New York Times, USA Today, and Investors’ Business Daily, to foreign newspapers such as “Le Figaro,” to books such as Jack Schwager’s “Market Wizards.”

To enter, the participant should go to the website financial-competitions.com, and sign up. That site has a link which shows some of the previous press coverage. The competition is run by Dr. Norman Zadeh, a former Stanford professor and son of Lotfi Zadeh, the creator of fuzzy logic.

This competition is primarily for up and coming traders who wish to establish a proven track record. Other than the modest entry fee, there is no downside. Negative performances are not published. If the participant does well, they are likely to receive substantial notoriety, along with the financial benefit that normally comes from such notoriety.

For more information, contact Dr. Norman Zadeh at norman@financial-competitions.com, or 310-409-7193, or 310-476-0700.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181228005024/en/

Lightspeed China Partners (LCP) announced that it has completed the final closing of fund family IV with total committed capital of $560 million, including Lightspeed China Partners IV at $360 million and Lightspeed China Partners Select I at $200 million. This is the largest fund family raised by LCP to date and brings committed capital under management to $1.5 billion. LCP IV will make investments in early stage technology companies in China while LCP Select I will focus on growth investments in China.

In the past 18 months, five portfolio companies that LCP invested in at an early stage have completed successful IPOs, including InnoLight (SZ:300308), Meituan Dianping (HK:3690), Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD), PPDai (NYSE:PPDF), and Rong360 (NYSE:JT).

In addition to the publicly traded companies, LCP has nurtured many innovative industry leaders across multiple sectors, including Black Fish, Fan Deng Reading Club, Fangdd, Full Truck Alliance, Hesai, Ifchange, QingCloud, Sunmi, Sweetome, Tencent Trusted Doctors, Tujia, Xiao Peng Auto, and XY Link.

First Institutional Venture Capital with Global Reach

The LCP team serves as lead investors in companies’ first institutional venture capital financings with a focus on Series A and Series B investments in China. The team brings an entrepreneurial perspective as many team members have either been successful entrepreneurs or have served as executives in technology companies. While partnering at the earliest stages of company formation, LCP is committed to financing companies throughout their lifecycles and contributing teambuilding and strategy development capabilities. LCP also provides founders with global aspirations access to an international network through Lightspeed’s global venture capital operations which include over 400 portfolio companies in the U.S., China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Israel. LCP has access to global trends and business model innovation as well as international talent, customers, partners and capital markets. Over more than a decade, LCP has developed a track record of helping China-based companies establish dominant market positions and expand globally.

Early Backers of Emerging Concepts

LCP has been an early investor in China’s consumer Internet, Internet+, and enterprise/deep tech sectors. More than half of the partnership’s investments have been in consumer Internet and Internet+, where technology is applied to create disruptive new business models in traditional industries. Notable areas of investment include social network applications, marketplaces, e-commerce, consumer services as well as enterprise products/services and deep tech. LCP has supported and nurtured an outstanding group of early-stage companies that have become unicorns in areas including new retail, culture, entertainment, travel, finance, real estate, healthcare, education, recruiting, and transportation.

LCP has successfully identified emerging market opportunities and has often served as the first source of capital in areas where there was initially limited institutional interest. A notable example is trucking logistics. Five years ago, LCP was the sole Series A investor in Full Truck Alliance (Yun Man Man) when the founders were exploring using a mobile platform to solve logistics and communications challenges in China’s fragmented trucking industry. After multiple large follow-on rounds where LCP continued to invest, the company merged with Huo Che Bang to form Full Truck Alliance which is now the world’s largest trucking logistics marketplace.

Due to the size of the consumer markets in China and availability of technology talent, China-based Internet and marketplace companies are increasingly becoming world leaders. Herry Han, Founding Partner of LCP, commented: “We believe there are plenty of new opportunities in China consumer Internet given the depth of China’s mobile payment and social networks. Innovation and entrepreneurship in the next decade will bring more China-based startups to the world stage. This will be China’s first decade of truly global innovation. Chinese entrepreneurs are now developing business plans with global expansion in mind from day one. We look forward to meeting entrepreneurs with ambitious visions and supporting them in realizing their dreams.”

LCP was also early to the enterprise and deep tech sectors in China. According to LCP Founding Partner, James Mi: “China’s enterprise service and deep tech innovation is in the early innings of development. Given China’s vast market, deep talent pool, and increasing demand for home-grown deep technologies across various industries, we are seeing accelerated growth and significant investment opportunities. LCP is uniquely positioned to be the leading early stage investor in these areas.” The LCP team has been investing in deep tech and enterprise opportunities from the beginning with multiple public company outcomes.

One of LCP’s deep tech portfolio companies is InnoLight which provides high speed optical transceiver modules for web-scale data centers supporting cloud computing. Customers include Google, Amazon AWS, and AliCloud. LCP invested in InnoLight in 2014, and the company became publicly listed in 2017.

LCP’s enterprise and deep tech investments span autonomous vehicles, AI, IoT, SaaS, enterprise marketplaces, semiconductors, and optical communications. The team will continue to leverage its deep tech industry expertise in support of experienced founders building industry leading companies.

Supportive Culture Underpinning Value Creation

Focus, excellence, mutual respect, and support are among the core values of LCP. The partnership believes that mutual respect and support between investors and entrepreneurs is a cornerstone of effective long-term partnerships. This principle applies equally within the firm. LCP strives to promote positive change and impact to society in the way it conducts its business. The team looks forward to continuing its partnership with game-changing founders and accompanying them from the beginning of their startup journeys through multiple stages of global growth.

About Lightspeed China Partners

Lightspeed China Partners (LCP) is a leading venture capital firm in China focused on early stage investments in consumer Internet, Internet+ and enterprise/deep tech. With strong backgrounds in company operations and entrepreneurship, the partners of LCP are committed to helping a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs become industry leaders, build world-class companies, and create social impact. Over the past 10 years, the Lightspeed China team has backed industry leading companies including Meituan Dianping, Pinduoduo, Full Truck Alliance, InnoLight, PPDai, Rong360, Tujia and Fangdd. LCP offers international value-added capabilities through its relationship with Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm managing over $6 billion of committed capital.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190102005585/en/

TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced promotions earned by 10 staff members in the firm’s Boston, Menlo Park, Hong Kong and Mumbai offices, effective January 1, 2019.

“We are delighted to announce these team members’ promotions, which were earned through their hard work and dedication to TA, our portfolio companies and our limited partners,” said Brian J. Conway, Chairman and Managing Partner at TA Associates. “Each of these individuals have played an important role in our growth and evolution as a firm, and we are pleased to recognize their accomplishments and look forward to their continued successes and contributions to TA.”

Dhiraj Poddar was promoted to Managing Director from Director. He heads the Indian operations of TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai, focusing on investments in companies in India. Mr. Poddar advised on TA’s investments in Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), Fincare, Fractal Analytics, Ideal Cures, IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk), Prudent Corporate Advisory Services, RateGain, Shilpa Medicare and Tega Industries. He serves on the Board of Directors of Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), Fincare, Fractal Analytics, Ideal Cures, IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk), Prudent Corporate Advisory Services and Tega Industries, and is a Board Observer of RateGain. Mr. Poddar received a degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Ethan Liebermann was promoted to Director from Principal. He is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in healthcare companies. Mr. Liebermann led TA’s investments in Aldevron and MedRisk; co-sponsored CCRM, Datix and SoftWriters; and was actively involved in the firm’s investment in eviCore healthcare (formerly MedSolutions). He serves on the Board of Directors of Aldevron, CCRM and Datix, and formerly served on the Board of MedRisk and SoftWriters. Prior to joining TA in 2007, Mr. Liebermann worked in the Global Healthcare Corporate and Investment Banking group at Banc of America Securities. He received a BA degree in Economics and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jason Mironov was promoted to Director from Principal. He is based in TA’s Menlo Park office, focusing on investments in business, financial, technology-enabled and other services companies in North America. Mr. Mironov led TA’s investment in Procare Software; co-sponsored Conservice, DiscoverOrg and Plusgrade; and was actively involved in the firm’s investment in The Collected Group (formerly Dutch). He serves on the Board of Directors of Conservice, DiscoverOrg and Procare Software, and formerly served on the Board of Plusgrade. Prior to joining TA in 2012, Mr. Mironov was an Associate at Spectrum Equity Investors and also worked in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan in New York and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as at Technology Crossover Ventures. He received a BBA degree, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Clara Jackson was promoted to Principal from Senior Vice President. She is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in financial services and technology and other services companies in North America. Ms. Jackson co-sponsored TA’s investment in Financial Information Technologies (Fintech), NorthStar Financial Services Group, Rectangle Health (formerly Retriever Medical/Dental Payments) and Russell Investments. She serves on the Board of Directors of Financial Information Technologies (Fintech) and NorthStar Financial Services Group, and is a Board Observer of Russell Investments. Prior to joining TA in 2014, Ms. Jackson was a Vice President at Fireman Capital Partners, where she served on the Board of Directors of Skip Hop. She was previously an Associate at TPG Growth and an Analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ms. Jackson received a BS degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Emily McGinty was promoted to Principal from Senior Vice President. She is based in TA’s Menlo Park office, focusing on investments in healthcare companies in North America. Ms. McGinty led TA’s investment in Behavioral Health Works and Healix, where she also serves on the Board of Directors. She was actively involved in the firm’s investment in eviCore healthcare (formerly MedSolutions). Prior to joining TA in 2007, Ms. McGinty worked in the Consumer, Healthcare and Retail Group at JPMorgan Securities. She received a BA degree, summa cum laude, in Economics from Boston College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Daniel Brujis was promoted to Senior Vice President from Vice President. He is based in TA’s Hong Kong office of TA Associates Asia Pacific Ltd., focusing on investments in companies in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on technology, consumer products, business and financial services. Mr. Brujis has been actively involved in TA’s investments in Fisher Funds, RateGain, Söderberg & Partners, Speedcast International and Yarra Capital Management. He is a Board Observer of Yarra Capital Management. Before joining the Hong Kong office, Mr. Brujis spent three years with TA in London focusing on European investments. Prior to joining TA in 2011, he was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at Lazard Frères & Co. Mr. Brujis received a BS degree, magna cum laude, in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

Michael Libert was promoted to Senior Vice President from Vice President. He is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in technology companies. Mr. Libert has been actively involved in TA’s investments in Answers, Bomgar, IDERA, insightsoftware, MRI Software, Nintex, PDI and Prometheus Group. He serves on the Board of Directors of insightsoftware and Nintex, and is a Board Observer of IDERA, MRI Software and PDI. Prior to joining TA in 2011, Mr. Libert led Corporate Strategy for Nintex and worked as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. He received an AB degree, cum laude, in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Tony Marsh was promoted to Chief Capital Markets Officer from Director of Capital Markets. He is based in TA’s Boston office, and leads all new acquisition financings and capital markets activities for TA portfolio companies globally, as well as manages the firm’s relationships with corporate finance providers and advisors. Prior to joining TA in 2013, Mr. Marsh was a Director at Credit Suisse in the Financial Sponsors Group, focusing on leveraged finance transactions. He received a BS degree in Business Management from Brigham Young University and an MBA, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Melanie Toomey was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, Management Company from Corporate Controller. She is based in TA’s Boston office, and is responsible for the accounting and financial reporting for TA’s investment adviser, co-investment program and general partner entities. Prior to joining TA in 2007, Ms. Toomey was a Finance Manager at Investors Bank & Trust Company. She also was an Auditor at Ernst & Young LLP. Ms. Toomey received a BS degree in Business Administration and an MA degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Gregory Wallace was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, Funds from Fund Controller. He is based in TA’s Boston office, and is responsible for oversight of the financial operations of the TA Funds, including the preparation of financial statements, valuation, cash management and tax compliance. Prior to joining TA in 2010, Mr. Wallace was an Audit Manager in the Asset Management practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He received a BS degree in Analytical Finance and an MS degree in Accounting from Wake Forest University, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

About TA Associates

TA Associates is one of the largest and most experienced global growth private equity firms. Focused on five target industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in growth companies. TA has raised $24 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of $2 billion per year. The firm’s more than 85 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005132/en/

Innovid, the world’s leading video advertising platform, today announced it has secured $30 million in pre-IPO funding from Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group. Innovid will use the additional capital to further its innovation and leadership in the connected TV (CTV) advertising technology market, as well as to expand its global footprint.

“Innovid continues to push the boundaries for what is possible with video advertising across all screens, especially on CTV,” said Zvika Netter, CEO and co-founder of Innovid. “Our technology platform is enabling new advertising models, including addressable and interactive ads, that are ushering in a new era of personalization and relevancy for CTV viewers. With this funding, Innovid will further advance its end-to-end CTV platform creating a more efficient workflow, while solving industry measurement challenges and expanding its global footprint to meet the evolving needs of its international client base of brands, media and creative agencies, and publishers.”

Innovid currently creates, delivers and measures video ads for the world’s largest brands, such as L’Oreal, Toyota, Bank of America, GlaxoSmithKline, Campbell’s and more. With the rapid consumer adoption of CTV, Innovid works hand-in-hand with key publisher clients, including Hulu, Roku and Fox, amongst others, to re-imagine the advertising experience for the consumer. In partnership with its publishing clients, Innovid led the creation of two industry firsts: consumer choice-based engagement ads and live Internet TV campaigns.

As the first-to-market with CTV ad technology five years ago, Innovid currently reaches more than 75 million households and works across the largest footprint of connected and streaming devices including integrations with Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Samsung TV and more. Further cementing its leadership in driving the CTV market, Innovid recently launched OTT COMPOSER, the premiere self-service authoring tool to create and publish experiences for connected TV advertising. It solves a critical problem in today’s fragmented CTV landscape by better enabling advertisers to scale dynamic creative. Innovid was also the first in the industry to receive MRC accreditation for adherence to industry standards for video advertising measurement in a CTV environment.

“As an early mover in CTV with established inventory supply partners, Innovid is well positioned to capture the massive secular shift in CTV consumption,” said Hillel Moerman, head of Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group. “Innovid has differentiated video advertising software and technology, and has the scale and the reach to succeed, with access to significant supply beyond CTV, including platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snap and others.”

The funding raise follows a successful year in 2018, where Innovid was named as a Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2018 Technology 500^™ and recognized by Gartner as a company to watch in AdTech. In addition to the funding, Holger Staude of Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group will join Innovid’s prior investors from SEQUOIA, Newspring and Genesis on the company’s board.

For more information on Innovid, please visit www.innovid.com.

About Innovid

Innovid is the world's leading video advertising platform, delivering more video than any company across mobile, desktop, connected TVs, streaming devices and social platforms. Innovid partners with brands, agencies, and publishers to deliver new advertising models that increase engagement and time spent in ways that also provide more value to viewers. Our video platform enables personalization of creative, seamless cross-screen delivery, and holistic measurement to fuel next-generation video experiences and grow revenue. Innovid has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Singapore. Please visit www.innovid.com for more information.

About Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing

Private Capital Investing (“PCI”) is Goldman Sachs’ investment platform dedicated to providing junior capital to growth and middle market companies throughout North America. PCI invests $20 million – $150 million per transaction in the form of common, preferred, and structured equity.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190107005325/en/

TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced promotions earned by 10 staff members in the firm’s Boston, Menlo Park, Hong Kong and Mumbai offices, effective January 1, 2019.

“We are delighted to announce these team members’ promotions, which were earned through their hard work and dedication to TA, our portfolio companies and our limited partners,” said Brian J. Conway, Chairman and Managing Partner at TA Associates. “Each of these individuals have played an important role in our growth and evolution as a firm, and we are pleased to recognize their accomplishments and look forward to their continued successes and contributions to TA.”

Dhiraj Poddar was promoted to Managing Director from Director. He heads the Indian operations of TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai, focusing on investments in companies in India. Mr. Poddar advised on TA’s investments in Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), Fincare, Fractal Analytics, Ideal Cures, IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk), Prudent Corporate Advisory Services, RateGain, Shilpa Medicare and Tega Industries. He serves on the Board of Directors of Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), Fincare, Fractal Analytics, Ideal Cures, IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk), Prudent Corporate Advisory Services and Tega Industries, and is a Board Observer of RateGain. Mr. Poddar received a degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Ethan Liebermann was promoted to Director from Principal. He is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in healthcare companies. Mr. Liebermann led TA’s investments in Aldevron and MedRisk; co-sponsored CCRM, Datix and SoftWriters; and was actively involved in the firm’s investment in eviCore healthcare (formerly MedSolutions). He serves on the Board of Directors of Aldevron, CCRM and Datix, and formerly served on the Board of MedRisk and SoftWriters. Prior to joining TA in 2007, Mr. Liebermann worked in the Global Healthcare Corporate and Investment Banking group at Banc of America Securities. He received a BA degree in Economics and Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jason Mironov was promoted to Director from Principal. He is based in TA’s Menlo Park office, focusing on investments in business, financial, technology-enabled and other services companies in North America. Mr. Mironov led TA’s investment in Procare Software; co-sponsored Conservice, DiscoverOrg and Plusgrade; and was actively involved in the firm’s investment in The Collected Group (formerly Dutch). He serves on the Board of Directors of Conservice, DiscoverOrg and Procare Software, and formerly served on the Board of Plusgrade. Prior to joining TA in 2012, Mr. Mironov was an Associate at Spectrum Equity Investors and also worked in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan in New York and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as at Technology Crossover Ventures. He received a BBA degree, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Clara Jackson was promoted to Principal from Senior Vice President. She is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in financial services and technology and other services companies in North America. Ms. Jackson co-sponsored TA’s investment in Financial Information Technologies (Fintech), NorthStar Financial Services Group, Rectangle Health (formerly Retriever Medical/Dental Payments) and Russell Investments. She serves on the Board of Directors of Financial Information Technologies (Fintech) and NorthStar Financial Services Group, and is a Board Observer of Russell Investments. Prior to joining TA in 2014, Ms. Jackson was a Vice President at Fireman Capital Partners, where she served on the Board of Directors of Skip Hop. She was previously an Associate at TPG Growth and an Analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ms. Jackson received a BS degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Emily McGinty was promoted to Principal from Senior Vice President. She is based in TA’s Menlo Park office, focusing on investments in healthcare companies in North America. Ms. McGinty led TA’s investment in Behavioral Health Works and Healix, where she also serves on the Board of Directors. She was actively involved in the firm’s investment in eviCore healthcare (formerly MedSolutions). Prior to joining TA in 2007, Ms. McGinty worked in the Consumer, Healthcare and Retail Group at JPMorgan Securities. She received a BA degree, summa cum laude, in Economics from Boston College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Daniel Brujis was promoted to Senior Vice President from Vice President. He is based in TA’s Hong Kong office of TA Associates Asia Pacific Ltd., focusing on investments in companies in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on technology, consumer products, business and financial services. Mr. Brujis has been actively involved in TA’s investments in Fisher Funds, RateGain, Söderberg & Partners, Speedcast International and Yarra Capital Management. He is a Board Observer of Yarra Capital Management. Before joining the Hong Kong office, Mr. Brujis spent three years with TA in London focusing on European investments. Prior to joining TA in 2011, he was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at Lazard Frères & Co. Mr. Brujis received a BS degree, magna cum laude, in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

Michael Libert was promoted to Senior Vice President from Vice President. He is based in TA’s Boston office, focusing on investments in technology companies. Mr. Libert has been actively involved in TA’s investments in Answers, Bomgar, IDERA, insightsoftware, MRI Software, Nintex, PDI and Prometheus Group. He serves on the Board of Directors of insightsoftware and Nintex, and is a Board Observer of IDERA, MRI Software and PDI. Prior to joining TA in 2011, Mr. Libert led Corporate Strategy for Nintex and worked as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. He received an AB degree, cum laude, in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Tony Marsh was promoted to Chief Capital Markets Officer from Director of Capital Markets. He is based in TA’s Boston office, and leads all new acquisition financings and capital markets activities for TA portfolio companies globally, as well as manages the firm’s relationships with corporate finance providers and advisors. Prior to joining TA in 2013, Mr. Marsh was a Director at Credit Suisse in the Financial Sponsors Group, focusing on leveraged finance transactions. He received a BS degree in Business Management from Brigham Young University and an MBA, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Melanie Toomey was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, Management Company from Corporate Controller. She is based in TA’s Boston office, and is responsible for the accounting and financial reporting for TA’s investment adviser, co-investment program and general partner entities. Prior to joining TA in 2007, Ms. Toomey was a Finance Manager at Investors Bank & Trust Company. She also was an Auditor at Ernst & Young LLP. Ms. Toomey received a BS degree in Business Administration and an MA degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Gregory Wallace was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, Funds from Fund Controller. He is based in TA’s Boston office, and is responsible for oversight of the financial operations of the TA Funds, including the preparation of financial statements, valuation, cash management and tax compliance. Prior to joining TA in 2010, Mr. Wallace was an Audit Manager in the Asset Management practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He received a BS degree in Analytical Finance and an MS degree in Accounting from Wake Forest University, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

About TA Associates

TA Associates is one of the largest and most experienced global growth private equity firms. Focused on five target industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in growth companies. TA has raised $24 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of $2 billion per year. The firm’s more than 85 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190106005132/en/

GeoSpock® – the extreme-scale spatial big data integration company that provides analytics, builds insight, and enables predictions across space and time – today announced it has raised £10 million in additional funding, bringing the total raised to date to £19.25 million.

Investment was led by existing backers Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) jointly with Parkwalk Advisors and Japanese firms Global Brain and 31Ventures. Japanese data tech company KDDI Supership joined as a strategic investor. Investment was also secured from existing investor, Jonathan Milner.

The additional funding will support GeoSpock’s rapid international expansion strategy to help develop key client accounts, particularly in the strategic markets of Singapore and Japan. The investment will also allow the spatial big data company to continue to invest in research and development, particularly in the areas of machine learning and data science.

GeoSpock is fast establishing itself as the de facto processing engine at the heart of next-generation smart infrastructure – including smart cities and the Internet of Everything (IoE). The company powers future mobility applications, including the management of autonomous vehicle fleets, working with businesses across the automotive, telecoms, mobility, marine, media, and retail sectors.

Victor Christou, CEO of Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), commented: “We’re delighted to lead GeoSpock’s latest funding drive, enabling this exciting company to innovate and scale globally. The opportunity presented by geospatial data is huge and this funding will support GeoSpock in delivering geo-temporal data understanding and visualisation for the everything-connected world. We also welcome KDDI Supership to this investment, whose expertise, particularly in Asia, will help GeoSpock widen and deepen its global reach.”

Richard Baker, CEO at GeoSpock, commented: “This additional strategic support from our investors will help GeoSpock to meet the needs of its fast-growing portfolio of international clients, allowing the business to focus on developing and growing the global commercial and engineering teams. We look forward to a very exciting 2019 that already promises to see GeoSpock make significant progress within mobility, telco, and IoT, as well as smart city and port initiatives.”

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Note to editors: This additional funding forms part of GeoSpock’sSeries A+ funding round.

About GeoSpock

GeoSpock® provides analytics, builds insight, and enables predictions across space and time. Its proprietary spatial big data platform visualises extreme amounts of contextual data in milliseconds. Its architecture has the ability to analyse trillions of geospatial and temporal data points in sub-second response time with its high performance, cloud-based services – infin8™, illumin8™, and extrapol8™. Conceived by Dr Steve Marsh while reading for his PhD in Computer Science at Cambridge University and founded as a business in 2013, GeoSpock is the future of big data management, providing extreme-scale, high volume-ingest, ease of use, and interactive results. Learn more at www.geospock.com or on Twitter @GeoSpock

About Cambridge Innovation Capital

Cambridge Innovation Capital combines a unique relationship with the University of Cambridge with deep financial and industry links to support rapidly growing intellectual property rich companies in the Cambridge Cluster. The company is committed to building leading businesses from brilliant technologies, with the benefit of some of the most influential figures in the sector and a patient capital structure.

For more information visit www.cicplc.co.uk or follow us on Twitter at @CambsInnovation

About Parkwalk

Parkwalk invests in high growth, knowledge intensive companies seeking to develop and commercialise technology and innovation originating from UK universities, research intensive institutions and technology clusters. Founded in 2009, Parkwalk is the largest EIS growth fund manager focused on university spin-outs, having raised over £180m to date and backed over 80 companies across its managed funds since inception.

www.parkwalkadvisors.com or @ParkwalkAdvisor

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190108005102/en/

The SharesPost Alternative Trading System executed its first secondary transaction in the “BCAP” security tokens issued by Blockchain Capital, the pioneer and premier venture capital firm focused exclusively on the blockchain technology sector. As a result, SharesPost, the leading provider of liquidity to the private growth asset class, has become the first marketplace to enable both secondary trading and custody of digital securities. Accredited investors can now trade digital securities and custody them in online brokerage accounts on the SharesPost Marketplace.

SharesPost Founder and CEO Greg Brogger said: “This is an important milestone for the digital securities ecosystem. Now companies can efficiently raise capital and provide liquidity globally by leveraging blockchain technology in a way that complies with securities laws. We are very excited to be connecting the more than 50,000 institutional and individual accredited investors using the SharesPost marketplace with companies and funds like Blockchain Capital that are leading the way. We believe that over time digital securities will join preferred and common stock as the mainstays of the private capital market.”

SharesPost’s unique combination of primary issuance, secondary trading and digital securities custody is possible because SharesPost is a FINRA registered self-clearing broker-dealer and an SEC registered Alternative Trading System. Currently, SharesPost supports Over-The-Counter (OTC) trading of digital securities, but has announced plans to add real time trading via a fully electronic order book in the near future. Client digital securities are custodied in SharesPost brokerage accounts where users can also deposit other unregistered securities, including “unicorn” equities. SharesPost also provides investors access to its institutional grade research and indices focused on digital assets and digital securities issuers.

Blockchain Capital Co-founder and Managing Partner, Bart Stephens said, “We are pleased to announce trading of the BCAP token on the SharesPost platform. SharesPost is unique in its support of private companies and funds because they offer a comprehensive platform on which our investors can interact to enable liquidity. SharesPost has traditionally endeavored to provide the Investor community with a wide variety of information, data and analysis on issuers and assets. We're hopeful that their platform will be a resource to our investors and allow us to deepen our relationship with them over time.”

SharesPost has been a pioneer in the private capital markets for nearly a decade. As private tech companies elected to remain private longer, SharesPost created the first global online securities marketplace to provide them with liquidity. Now, SharesPost is evolving its proven securities trading technology and expertise to put its clients at the forefront of the next wave of capital markets innovation that blockchain technology and digital securities represent.

For more information on SharesPost visit sharespost.com/tokens.

About SharesPost, Inc.

SharesPost’s mission is to create liquidity for the private growth asset class. In 2009, SharesPost launched the first online secondary market for private technology company shares. Since then, SharesPost has connected thousands of buyers and sellers in more than $4.5 billion worth of transactions in the shares of more than 250 leading technology companies.

The SharesPost platform now also enables clients to access a variety of private market investment and liquidity solutions including (i) research and data on leading private technology companies, (ii) the SharesPost Private Growth Index, (iii) the SharesPost100 Fund, a registered closed-end interval fund providing all investors with easy access to the asset class, and (iv) SharesPost Lending, which enables private company shareholders to borrow against their shares. In 2018, SharesPost announced plans to integrate trading of digital securities into the SharesPost platform.

SharesPost is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, SEC registered Alternative Trading System and Registered Investment Advisor. For more information, please visit SharesPost.com.

About Blockchain Capital:

Founded in 2013, Blockchain Capital is one of the earliest and most active investors in the blockchain technology industry and the crypto ecosystem. Blockchain Capital has raised and deployed four venture funds, including the first ever token offering of a venture fund (the BCAP tokens) in April of 2017. The firm is based in San Francisco and was founded by serial entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley investors Bart Stephens and Brad Stephens. To learn more, please visit www.blockchaincapital.com and follow us on Twitter @blockchaincap.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190110005168/en/

Citi released its annual Corporate Finance Priorities report, which highlights the key issues facing corporate and financial institutions.

In this report, Citi reviews the key themes corporate executives need to consider in 2019 including:

• Navigating macroeconomic uncertainty
• Re-evaluating organic and inorganic growth alternatives
• Optimizing capital deployment firepower
• Developing an action plan to address technological disruption
• Pursuing a value-accretive M&A despite greater regulatory uncertainty
• Rebalancing the corporate portfolio
• Anticipating risking buyout interests
• Preparing for trade war headwinds
• Calibrating emerging markets strategy balancing growth and risk
• Paying attention to corporate responsibility

“Fears of slowing economic growth, tighter monetary policy, and trade-related tensions all contributed to heightened equity and credit market volatility during 2018. In this uncertain environment, companies will need to reassess their capital deployment programs and growth initiatives,” said Ajay Khorana, Head of Citi’s Financial Strategy and Solutions Group.

The Financial Strategy and Solutions Group is the corporate finance advisory team in Citi’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory division. It advises corporate and financial institution clients globally on the full spectrum of corporate finance issues, including valuation, capital structure, credit ratings, risk management, liability management, shareholder distributions, and acquisition and funding strategies. In partnership with Citi’s product and industry experts, it designs innovative solutions to assist clients.

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Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at http://www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com/ | Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190110005421/en/

Brillio, a global digital technology consulting and solutions company, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Bain Capital Private Equity to acquire a majority stake in the company to further scale its digital transformation offerings. Brillio will continue to be led by the current management team, headed by Chief Executive Officer Raj Mamodia. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

“We are honored to collaborate with Bain Capital Private Equity as we continue to establish Brillio as the preferred transformation services partner for our customers. In order to realize our goal of being one of the world’s leading provider of digital solutions over the next five years and achieve revenues of $500 million, this partnership is pivotal as Bain Capital has a deep understanding of our industry and holds a long-term view around the potential of digital transformation,” said Raj Mamodia, CEO of Brillio. “This is a strong validation of Brillio’s vision and strategy, and our track record of organic and acquisition-driven growth. We welcome Bain Capital as a partner and are excited about embarking on the next phase of our growth trajectory as we continue to make our customers successful in the markets they serve.”

Since its inception, Brillio has built a full suite of services that enterprises need as they embark on their digital journeys and transform front office and back office functionality. “Brillio’s world-class execution is evidenced by how we have become a preferred partner for our customers. Within just a few years we have garnered awards and analyst recognition for our ability to successfully manage a wide range of digital transformation engagements from design to implementation, including full-scale projects with global brands such as Verizon, FordDirect, Move, Yokohama, Coats, and EventBrite amongst several others,” said Mamodia.

“Over the last few years, we have built a close relationship with Raj and his team as they have built Brillio into a disruptive business by creating an agile, digital-first team of professionals who provide a best-in-class delivery engine that delivers real-time impact for customers,” said Pavninder Singh, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity.

Bain Capital Private Equity has a long track record of partnering with management teams of technology and digital services companies to accelerate growth. The firm’s technology investments include Bellsystem24, Waystar, Viewpoint, Blue Coat, BMC Software, Genpact, QuEST Global Services, SunGard Data Systems, and VXI amongst many others.

“With its focus on new age technologies, partnerships with high-growth cloud ecosystems and a high-quality delivery engine, we believe Brillio is well-positioned to capitalize on digital disruption and look forward to partnering to help the company scale through complementary acquisitions and organic growth,” said Samonnoi Banerjee, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity.

With Bain Capital’s support, Brillio will continue its focus on delivering digital transformation by doubling down on its winning engagement models. Customers can expect an increased focus on building industry-specific capabilities and solutions in the areas of design, experience, product engineering, AI, machine learning, blockchain, NLP, cloud and analytics that deliver differentiated digital transformation outcomes.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including requisite regulatory approvals, and is expected to close during the first quarter of 2019.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is serving as legal counsel to Brillio. Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal counsel, and PwC as accounting advisor to Bain Capital Private Equity.

About Brillio

Brillio is a leading global digital consulting and technology services company focused on implementation of digital technologies for the world's leading companies. Brillio uses proprietary methodologies to help customers re-imagine their businesses and competitive advantages and then rapidly develops and deploys disruptive industrial-grade digital solutions using UX design, digital applications, big data analytics, cloud, security and digital engineering. The 1,500+ strong Brillio team is based in seven offices across three continents and considers world-class customer satisfaction as its true north. To learn more follow us @brillioglobal and visit our website at www.brillio.com.

About Bain Capital Private Equity

Bain Capital Private Equity (www.baincapitalprivateequity.com) has partnered closely with management teams to provide the strategic resources that build great companies and help them thrive since its founding in 1984. Bain Capital Private Equity’s global team of approximately 240 investment professionals creates value for its portfolio companies through its global platform and depth of expertise in key vertical industries including healthcare, consumer/retail, financial and business services, industrials, and technology, media and telecommunications. Bain Capital has 19 offices on four continents. The firm has made primary or add-on investments in more than 760 companies since its inception. In addition to private equity, Bain Capital invests across asset classes including credit, public equity and venture capital, managing approximately $105 billion in total and leveraging the firm’s shared platform to capture opportunities in strategic areas of focus.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190115005139/en/

ActPro Co., Ltd installed approximately 400 units of SMART EXCHANGE automated currency exchange machine which can exchange 12 foreign currencies in Japan, in just 2.5 years.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190114005021/en/

SMART EXCHANGE (Photo: Business Wire)

The automatic foreign currency exchange machines made in Japan are the world’s best, enabling currency exchange through simple to use touch panel operation and no longer need human labor.

The service is available at shopping malls, shrines, temples, airport terminals, train stations and several sightseeing spots thus owning No. 1 world market share. (In-house research)

In 2017, the number of foreign visitors to Japan broke the record and reached to 28.69 million as the result of the effort by both the public and private sectors. A phenomenal growth of 461% in the last 6 years, since 2011. It is confirmed foreign tourists to Japan has exceeded a record 30 million people in 2018.

The number of overseas travelers in the world has exceeded 1.3 billion, a record high and is projected to reach 1.8 billion annually by 2030; UN (WTO) forecasts that the share of emerging countries will be 57%.

ActPro is currently developing an automatic foreign currency exchange machine to resolve the inconvenience experienced by travelers. As first step, from the Autumn of 2018, ActPro Co., Ltd seeks business partners in Southeast Asia, Europe, America, Russia and other countries.

Details of function in Japan
Operation method: touch screen
Voice guidance: Japanese & English
Available languages: 10 languages inclusive of Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and German
Exchangeable foreign currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CNY, HKD, KRW, TWD, SGD, THB, IDR, MYR (Total 12 currencies)*
Exchangeable method: Bills & Coins
Exchangeable amount: up to 100,000 yen per transaction (by conversion to Japanese yen)
Service fee: vary by currencies and the rate of exchange
Condition of the operation: unmanned, correspondence with server by LAN/ wires router
Call center for users: correspondence in 10 languages (6 languages: 24 hours, 4 languages: 10AM to 6PM)
*Available to customize 12 foreign currencies out of 120 upon request

Company Name: ActPro Co., Ltd
HP: https://www.actpro.co.jp/en/index.html
FB: https://www.facebook.com/actprosmartexchange/
IG: https://instagram.com/smart_exchange/
GPS Navigator: https://smartexchange.jp/en/
Email: main@actpro.co.jp

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190114005021/en/

Moody’s Analytics is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Steve Cochrane as its Chief Asia-Pacific Economist. In this new role, based in Singapore, Steve is responsible for leading the expansion of economic forecasting and advisory services from Moody’s Analytics across Asia. Steve oversees the development of the Moody’s Analytics international, national and subnational forecast models and their application to serve banks, governments, and corporates across the region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190114005874/en/

Dr. Steve Cochrane, Chief APAC Economist, Moody's Analytics (Photo: Business Wire)

“I am thrilled to return to living in the Asia-Pacific region, having spent seven years living in Indonesia and the Philippines earlier in my career,” said Dr. Cochrane. “I look forward to helping organizations in the region navigate the increasingly complex economic landscape. While there is increased volatility arising from shifts in interest rates and trade policy, the region is in a good position to withstand these headwinds.”

Steve leads a team of economists in research efforts focused on near-term economic risks to Asia-Pacific economies including the potential impact of tariffs; exposure to international capital flows and interest rate shifts; and rising debt loads of households, corporates, and governments. In his most recent piece, Some Rising Pressure Points in Global Debt, Steve explores risks that shifting patterns of household debt bring to several Asia-Pacific countries. He notes that “while not all Asia-Pacific countries face risks from high or rising household credit, an interest rate shock or an economic shock would likely be felt the most in South Korea, Malaysia, China, or Thailand.”

Steve’s recent research on Asian economies includes:

• At a Crossroads: China Taps the Accelerator

• Pride and Protectionism: U.S. Trade Policy and Its Impact on Asia

• Moody’s Analytics Asia Deep Downturn Scenario

Before taking on the role of Chief Asia-Pacific Economist, Steve spent 25 years managing the economic research and forecasting activities of teams of economists in the United States. Steve has been leading teams of economists at Moody’s Analytics for 10 years, during which time he directed consulting projects to help clients understand the effect of regional economic developments on their business under different economic scenarios.

Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Steve brings a wealth of expertise to this role after building our Regional Economic Forecasting team in the US. It is a pleasure to partner with him in this new capacity.”

Steve holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Penn Institute for Urban Research Scholar. He also holds master's degree from the University of Colorado at Denver and a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Davis.

Click here to learn more about Moody’s Analytics economic solutions.

About Moody’s Analytics

Moody’s Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions. Our deep risk expertise, expansive information resources, and innovative application of technology help our clients confidently navigate an evolving marketplace. We are known for our industry-leading and award-winning solutions, made up of research, data, software, and professional services, assembled to deliver a seamless customer experience. We create confidence in thousands of organizations worldwide, with our commitment to excellence, open mindset approach, and focus on meeting customer needs. For more information about Moody’s Analytics, visit www.moodysanalytics.com.

Moody's Analytics is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Moody’s Corporation reported revenue of $4.2 billion in 2017, employs approximately 12,600 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 42 countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190114005874/en/

AxiomSL, the leading global provider of regulatory-reporting, risk and data-management solutions, today announced the appointment of David Weber as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and the appointment of Eyal Amsalem as Chief Administrative Officer.

Mr. Weber, who brings more than 30 years of financial management and operations experience, joins AxiomSL from Charles River Development (CRD), where he served as Chief Financial Officer since 2006. His management responsibilities spanned finance, accounting, human resources, legal and general operations of the business. He also played an instrumental role in CRD’s recent sale to State Street Bank and Trust Company.

"We’re thrilled to welcome Dave to AxiomSL as the new COO and CFO during this important expansion period," said Alex Tsigutkin, Founder and CEO of AxiomSL. "Dave’s unique experience and skilled leadership in the financial technology sector is a great addition to our management team. His deep financial, operational and strategic expertise will enable him to immediately make a strong contribution and drive continued momentum as we enter this phase of growth.”

Prior to CRD, Mr. Weber held various roles at Sybase Inc., including Vice President of Worldwide and International Field Operations Finance; Senior Director of Professional Services; and Director of Operations. He was the Chief Financial Officer at Context Integration, a software consulting company. Mr. Weber holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management.

“I’m honored and excited to join AxiomSL, an organization with an outstanding reputation as a global leader of regulatory-reporting, risk and data management solutions,” said David Weber. “The company’s growth over the last few years has been exceptional, and I’m incredibly energized to help lead AxiomSL in its journey to grow, scale and meet the market demand.”

Mr. Weber succeeds Eyal Amsalem, who has served as AxiomSL’s Chief Financial Officer since 2008. Mr. Amsalem will remain at AxiomSL as its Chief Administrative Officer. In his new role, he will help lead efforts to manage AxiomSL’s global presence.

Said Alex Tsigutkin, “Eyal continues to be a major factor in AxiomSL’s success. Throughout his tenure, he’s been instrumental in the company’s growth, which led to our first outside strategic investment by Technology Crossover Ventures in 2017. As Chief Administrative Officer, Eyal will play a major part in ensuring that we continue to be a first-class organization as we grow our presence in North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America.”

About AxiomSL

AxiomSL is the leading global provider of regulatory-reporting, risk and data-management solutions for financial services firms, including banks, broker-dealers, asset managers and insurance companies. Its unique enterprise data management platform delivers data-lineage, risk aggregation, analytics, workflow-automation, validation and traceability. For more information, visit www.axiomsl.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190115005160/en/

As part of its ongoing commitment to support female entrepreneurs, Visa (NYSE: V) is launching a global initiative – She’s Next, Empowered by Visa – to encourage women small business owners as they build, sustain and advance their businesses.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190115005241/en/

Visa unveils a global initiative to champion women-owned small businesses everywhere: She’s Next, Empowered by Visa. Visa executives Mary Ann Reilly (left) and Suzan Kereere (right) are joined by Rebecca Minkoff, founder of Rebecca Minkoff (center) and the Female Founder Collective at an event at Hudson Yards in New York City. (Photo: Business Wire)

The global rate of female entrepreneurship has been increasing more quickly than that of male entrepreneurs,¹ with more than 163 million women around the world starting a business since 2014². She’s Next will champion this growing trend, with additional support from leading small business advocates, including Square and Yelp.

“Starting and growing a business can be both incredibly rewarding and daunting. That is why Visa is committed to empowering women business owners through a year-long program of education, cutting-edge digital payment technology and a powerful peer network,” said Suzan Kereere, global head of merchant sales & acquiring, Visa. “There is never enough time or enough resources, but when we work together to support each other, amazing things can happen.”

Inspiring Female Business Leaders

She’s Next, will be supported by the Female Founder Collective (FFC) – a network of businesses led by women, supporting women – that launched in 2018 and quickly grew to over 3,000 members. From streamlining payment methods to linking women small business owners with like-minded peers and experts, Visa and FFC will together offer unmatched resources and opportunities for female entrepreneurs.

“As women, we have the power to shape and transform our communities—through our purchasing power and also through the leadership and employment opportunities we offer as business owners,” said Rebecca Minkoff, founder of Rebecca Minkoff and the Female Founder Collective. “By joining forces with Visa, we will help build awareness of women-owned businesses, provide them with more opportunities and invest in women across the socioeconomic spectrum around the globe.”

Going Global

She’s Next was unveiled at a preview event at Hudson Yards in New York City today, coinciding with the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Big Show. Over the course of 2019, Visa will create pop-up events around the world that offer a range of practical tools, resources, insights and networking opportunities for female entrepreneurs, including:

• Interactive Workshops: Beginning with an inaugural event in Atlanta on January 30, alongside Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, Visa will host a series of interactive workshops to tackle business challenges specific to each community. Future events are planned for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ and beyond.
• Access to Experts: Each workshop will include experts from Visa, local and national subject matter experts, and partners to maximize benefits to female business owners. Specifically at the inaugural workshop in Atlanta, leaders from Visa, Square and Yelp will bring their own expertise and innovation to the workshop.
• New Research: Initial insights from a forthcoming survey commissioned by Visa of US-based female small business owners will help to inform the issues that matter most to women entrepreneurs. Select findings include:
  • Key Motivators: The top three things women cite as motivators in starting their own businesses are: pursuing their passion (48%), having financial independence (43%) and having flexibility (41%).
  • Money Matters: Nearly three quarters of women (73%) report that it was difficult to obtain the funding they needed to start their own business. In fact, six in ten (61%) self-funded their business.
  • Digital First: When asked to identify top workshop topics they would like to learn more about, respondents said improved social media and digital marketing skills to promote and grow their businesses.
• Advertising Campaign: In 2019, Visa will launch phase two of its multi-million dollar Money is Changing marketing campaign in the United States, building on its millennial women focus and featuring real-life female business owners. Visa will feature a diverse spectrum of women in the campaign who will highlight the practical steps they have personally taken to change the game and challenge existing taboos when it comes to money.

Visa, Women and Small Businesses

She’s Next builds off the success of Visa-supported programs focusing on small businesses, as well as female business owners. Recent examples include Visa’s sponsorship of the Great British High Street program in the United Kingdom and Visa’s Money is Changing marketing campaign in the United States. In addition to Visa’s efforts, the Visa Foundation made its first financial commitment of up to $20 million to Women’s World Banking.

As a market leader in the small business segment in the United States, Visa provides a full suite of payment services designed for virtually every need, whether businesses are accepting payments from 3.3 billion Visa accountholders worldwide or making secure, seamless payments to their own providers using Visa Business credit, debit or prepaid cards.

For more information on Visa’s small business solutions, please visit https://usa.visa.com/partner-with-us/info-for-partners/info-for-small-business.html.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and a driving force behind the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog.htmland @VisaNews.

¹Gem 2016/2017 Women's Entrepreneurship Report

²2016/2017 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

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