Latest news with #BalajiSrinivasan
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Remittance firm Aspora garners $93m in funding
Cross border payments startup Aspora has raised $93m across three funding rounds, aimed at expanding its cross-border financial services. The company, founded in 2022, is focused on building financial infrastructure tailored to the needs of global Indian communities. Aspora is backed by venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Soma Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Y Combinator. The company also has the support of angel investors such as Quantum Light, Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase), Sundeep Jain (former CPO of Uber), Prasanna Sankar (Co-founder of Rippling), and Chad West (former CMO at Revolut). Headquartered in London, with offices in Dubai and India, Aspora currently serves users across the UK, UAE, and the EU. The company has reported processing over $2bn in remittance volume, a fivefold increase from $400m six months ago, the company said in a statement. More than 250,000 non-resident Indians (NRIs) now use the platform, and Aspora estimates users have saved over $15m in fees compared to traditional remittance providers. The company is set to launch its services in the US in July, with Canada, Australia, and Singapore expected to follow before the end of the year. In addition to remittances, Aspora plans to develop a broader financial ecosystem that includes banking, investments, credit, and insurance products tailored to the needs of individuals with cross-border lives. "Remittance firm Aspora garners $93m in funding " was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SuperAI Singapore 2025 Sells Out: Asia's Largest AI Event Brings Together 7,000 Global Innovators
1,000+ AI companies from 100+ countries converge at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore East meets West on stage – with voices like Balaji Srinivasan, Dwarkesh Patel, and Edward Snowden alongside China's Unitree Robotics, Zhipu AI, and Manus AI Full AI development lifecycle on display – from builders in the 36-hour NEXT Hackathon to frontier startups in the Genesis Competition, immersive workshops, and dedicated Community Hubs SINGAPORE, June 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SuperAI Singapore 2025 has officially sold out, with 7,000 attendees confirmed to gather at Marina Bay Sands tomorrow for Asia's largest and most influential AI conference. The event will convene AI leaders, frontier technologists, investors, and researchers from across 100+ countries – representing more than 1,000 of the world's most forward-thinking AI companies. This year's edition signals a major inflection point in the AI industry, with SuperAI becoming the global stage where East meets West, frontier meets enterprise, and ideas become products. Visionaries across robotics, healthcare, and finance will explore AI's industrial and societal impact – with speakers Balaji Srinivasan, Dwarkesh Patel, Tao Cheung (Manus AI), Edward Snowden, Felix Shang (Unitree Robotics), Nicolaus Radford (Persona AI), and Pippa Malmgren among the roster of over 100 to take the stage. The 36-hour NEXT Hackathon, and the Genesis Startup Competition will take place at the heart of SuperAI on 18-19 June, with over US$250,000 in builder capital available for the next generation of AI and Machine Learning engineers and entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, immersive workshops, AI labs, and community hubs will showcase the full lifecycle of AI development – from code to capital to community. "SuperAI is no longer just a conference – it's where the next wave of AI gets defined," said Peter Noszek, Co-Founder of SuperAI. "What's most exciting is the calibre of people in the room: engineers, founders, policy makers, investors – all here to shape what comes next." 150 Exhibitors Power a Sold-Out Exhibition Floor The expo floor is fully booked, featuring over 150 exhibitors across AI infrastructure, robotics, cloud, and deeptech innovation. Highlights include robotics pioneers Unitree Robotics and Quikbot, infrastructure innovators Google Cloud, FuriosaAI, Groq, and AMQ Semiconductor, and startups pioneering the future of agentic AI like Manus AI. Attendees will journey into an AI-enabled future, with live robotic art displays, AI-generated visual immersions, and the AI Creator Lab presented by AMD – which will teach creators how to turn raw ideas into finished videos, music, and graphics in minutes by putting AI to work. AI's cultural and societal impact will be unveiled at SuperAI's community hubs – with activations from Tatler and Mixmag exploring AI's impact on culture, art, and music, while the participation of IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority), DISG (Digital Industry Singapore), and Startup Island Taiwan, spotlighting both Singaporean and regional government perspectives. SuperAI Diamond Sponsors include agentic AI launchpad Auki Labs – building a collaborative sense of space for robotics, XR and smart cities; WEKA – the foundation for enterprise AI; – scalable compute for the AI economy; Bright Data – limitless web data infrastructure; and Amazon Web Services (AWS). SuperAI Returns for Its Biggest Edition Yet: 10-11 June 2026 SuperAI today confirmed its return to Singapore on 10-11 June 2026, once again at Marina Bay Sands. Following overwhelming demand and a sold-out 2025 edition, next year's event will feature expanded exhibition space, new content tracks, and deeper integration of AI technologies to produce its most immersive edition yet. SuperAI will continue to serve as the global nexus for AI's builders, thinkers, and decision-makers – shaping not just the future of the industry, but the future of frontier technologies. Join the early access waitlist for SuperAI Singapore, 10-11 June 2026: About SuperAI SuperAI is Asia's largest AI event. Showcasing the transformative power of artificial intelligence, SuperAI brings together frontier technology visionaries, developers, startups, enterprises, researchers, and policymakers to shape the future. Taking place 18-19 June 2025 at the iconic Marina Bay Sands, SuperAI Singapore will convene over 7,000 attendees from more than 100 countries to explore and unveil developments in robotics, healthcare, finance – and AI's impact across industries and society. Website: Note to Editors: Interview opportunities with the SuperAI team, Genesis finalists and speakers can be arranged through the media centre. View original content: SOURCE SuperAI Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Fintech Aspora raises $53 million to expand cross-border banking for global Indians
Bengaluru: Aspora, a London-headquartered fintech startup focused on providing banking services for immigrant communities, has raised $53 million co-led by Sequoia and Greylock, with participation from Quantum Light Ventures. The company, which was previously known as Vance, is targeting the global Indian diaspora as its first major customer base. The latest round follows Aspora's $35 million and a $5 million seed extension last year. Over the past six months, the company has raised a total of $93 million across multiple funding rounds. Founded by Parth Garg in 2022, who dropped out of Stanford University to start the venture, Aspora is building cross-border financial products for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and other diaspora segments. According to the company, it currently serves 250,000 users, with its primary user base in the UAE. Over the past six months, Aspora's transaction volume has grown from $400 million to more than $2 billion, with users saving over $15 million in fees compared to traditional providers. Aspora offers zero-fee remittance transfers from the UAE and provides exchange rates identical to market benchmarks displayed on Google, while fees may apply in other markets. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Eat 1 Teaspoon Every Night, See What Happens A Week Later [Video] getfittoday Undo The company currently operates across the UK, EU, and UAE, and plans to launch in the United States in July 2025, followed by expansion into Canada, Australia, and Singapore by the end of the year. In addition to institutional investors, Aspora is backed by a group of individual investors that includes Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO, Coinbase), Sundeep Jain (former CPO, Uber), Prasanna Sankar (co-founder, Rippling), and Chad West (former global marketing head, Revolut).
Mail & Guardian
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
New enclaves recall medieval feudal states
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G) A few weeks ago I appeared on Newzroom Afrika's Top Stories of the Week programme with the excellent host, Naledi Moleo. It is a news programme that covers the week's top stories in a similar format as that of sports news channel ESPN. It sprints through as many topics as possible within a 45 to 60 minute show, inclusive of commercial breaks. One of the topics we touched on was the march against the whites-only Afrikaner settlement of Kleinfontein in Tshwane by the Economic Freedom Fighters. At that stage, the Oval Office meeting between presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Donald Trump had not yet occurred, but the country was fixated on Trump's offer for asylum to white Afrikaners. The discussion got me thinking long after the show. Obviously settlements like Orania and Kleinfontein are racist and must be rejected immediately. They should not be allowed to exist, it is as simple as that. If we remove the racial dimension from the phenomena of Orania and Kleinfontein, we will discern that there is a much larger sinister global agenda afoot. American tech billionaires such as Balaji Srinivasan, Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, associated with Trump and his Make America Great Again movement, are financially backing Próspera, a city state, on the island of Roatan in Honduras. These city states have been called different names, such as 'charter cities', 'start-up cities', 'freedom cities' and free private cities, so as to make them seem as harmless as possible. In Honduras, Próspera was created through government-established zones of economic development and employment, the ZEDEs. In the ZEDE, Próspera can operate autonomously from the Honduran government. The idea behind Próspera is to create free-market enclaves with their own rules and laws. It is governed by a council composed of nine members. Five are elected, while four are appointed by Honduras Próspera Inc, therefore in practice the company has an effective veto power because all decisions require a two-thirds majority. In Próspera the more land you own the more votes you get. Visitors are required to apply and receive a enter through a customs border post guarded by the company's private militia. Próspera adopts its own civil and commercial codes, which are subject to Honduran criminal law. Its charter disallows land expropriation, but Próspera itself is allowed to incorporate land anywhere on the island of Roatan. Local Hondurans, such as the local Crawfish Rock community, live in fear of their land being taken away by Próspera and its plans for expansion. Próspera collects its own taxes from residents, which includes the businesses located on Próspera. The taxes are low, with business paying only 1% of revenue and being allowed to customise the commercial regulations that apply to them. Personal tax is only 5% and the local government receives no tax revenue from Próspera. Rich people, especially Americans, go to Próspera seeking experimental medical treatment that is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. These are vanity projects such as inserting a chip into your hand so that you can communicate with your Tesla vehicle. Honduras President Xiomara Castro has vowed to keep her 2021 election campaign promise of dismantling Próspera. Her attempts have been met with stiff opposition by the rich owners of Próspera, who are in turn suing the Honduran government for nearly $11 billion, which is one-third of the Honduran GDP. A Próspera advocacy group called the Freedom Cities coalition has begun meeting with the Trump administration. Elvira Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, has claimed that the Honduran government are socialists who do not care for their country when they do not allow ZEDEs to do what they like. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank-funded institution, an arbitration body established in 1966 to settle legal disputes between international investors and countries, has ruled against the Honduran government, that the investors had to exhaust local remedies before appealing for arbitration, which effectively allows the $11 billion lawsuit to proceed. This is despite the Honduran supreme court's 2024 judgement that rendered the ZEDEs unconstitutional retroactively. These elitist enclaves are not exactly new. Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria was established in colonial times for the British elite, and in 1960 when Nigeria got its independence, local Nigerian elites joined the British expatriates on the Island. In the 2024 election campaign trail Trump promised the establishment of freedom cities in the United States. Already there is talk about a freedom city being established north of San Francisco and a crypto state in the Mediterranean. In Zambia there is Nkwashi, which is 36 kilometres east of the capital city Lusaka, that is described as a self-contained city that is privately owned, managed, and autonomous of the government. As much as we despise Orania and Kleinfontein, and may baulk at the phenomena of Próspera, we are busy establishing similar settlements all over the country. It may not be racist, but the increasing phenomena of golfing and townhouse type estates are essentially classist and elitist. These estates have their own government called a body corporate, their own private police force, and the body corporate has legislative powers, and acts as the judiciary. Thus, we are witnessing a return to feudal times with feudal lords and people living in city states. Initially these were purely residential, governed by an elected body corporate that decided on estate rules on the common areas of parking, gardens and walkways, as well as issues like loud music. Later these estates began creating clubhouses, with shops so you could buy items, as well as have a meal, a drink and get together with other residents. These estates offer much more today. Besides golf courses they now have gyms, daycare centres, schools and offices that can be rented. It is only a matter of time before national retailers such as Pick n Pay, Checkers and Woolworths enter: soon there will be a shopping mall in an estate. Farming areas in the Western Cape are being transformed into residential estates. Farm workers and labour tenants, who have lived on the land for many years, are moved off the land and can only work as minimum wage service staff on these estates. The Val de Vie estate in the Cape Winelands, for instance, has properties that cost R6 million for a small house and larger ones at R120 million. It is a small step for such estates to become a Próspera. The Cape Independence and the Referendum parties have previously called for the secession of the province. Next year we shall be expected to participate in local government elections. All our local governments are failing, even those who claim to be an oasis of success in a desert of ineptitude, and therefore the advent of these private sector enclaves of residential estates are appealing. Especially when crime and grime affect all, both historical townships and suburbs. Commercial districts, such as city business districts, the so-called City Improvement Districts, and even our 1980s urban strip malls, are also negatively affected by the utter deteriorating local governance. We will not solve government failures by creating private retreats. But it is equally compelling for political parties and their leaders, especially the ANC, to admit that it is not just the appeal of private retreats that makes an Orania-like golf estate attractive but it is also due to the contempt in which the people are treated in the free South Africa. Political parties have to reconnect with the people of South Africa, not by saying how much better they are than other failing parties, but by actually really listening and involving the people so that our cities are run better, there is increasing employment for all, and we effectively tackle poverty and inequality. If we cannot do these things, our country will resemble a medieval feudal state with golf city states while the majority live outside the castle walls, hoping their children will one day be able to live in these enclaves. Donovan E Williams is a social commentator. @TheSherpaZA on X.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto kidnappings leave investors, executives on edge
A string of crypto kidnappings across Europe and the US have put executives and investors on edge. A brutal scene unfolded in New York City over the holiday weekend, when a Kentucky man was arrested and accused of torturing an Italian tourist to obtain access to his crypto wallet. Concerns have grown after hackers stole from Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange, the names, addresses, and account balances of some customers. 'This hack will lead to people dying,' TechCrunch founder and crypto investor Michael Arrington wrote on X. Kidnapping for crypto has become increasingly common in Europe, especially France. Masked assailants unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap the daughter of a prominent crypto executive off the streets of Paris this month, while the co-founder of Ledger, a widely used physical crypto wallet maker, was kidnapped alongside his wife and mutilated earlier this year. Both were committed in an effort to get millions in crypto ransom, according to French police, who arrested twenty individuals they believe were involved in the plots yesterday. Crypto enthusiasts blame rules that require companies to collect personal data in the first place. 'This issue is much bigger than crypto, and regulation is the actual thing to target,' investor Balaji Srinivasan wrote in response to Arrington's post. But kidnappings stemming from hacks of banks — which have to collect that same data — are vanishingly rare, suggesting that crypto's vulnerability lies in the untraceability (to a point) of payments and its usefulness in criminal enterprises. Crypto-related kidnappings make 'total sense' to criminals, a former US Marine and founder of the security firm Station70 told The New York Post: 'It's a lot easier – lower risk – and it's a much bigger payout than, say, robbing a bank or robbing a convenience store.'
