Daily Briefing: Reefknot, Mastercard co-leads Previse's $11m funding; FairPrice raises online capacity by 30%

And IMDA investigates StarHub’s internet service disruptions.

From DealStreetAsia:

Reefknot Investments, a Temasek-backed logistics venture capital firm, and Mastercard have co-lead an $11m funding fund for UK-based fintech startup Previse. The round was joined by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Hambro Perks, and Augmentum Fintech.

Previse is building a solution called InstantPay which analyses the data of corporate buyers to detect invoices needing intervention whilst ensuring other payments are executed quickly.

The company aims to use the fresh capital to increase the adoption of its product amongst large corporate buyers globally. It aims to pay at least five million suppliers instantly within the next five years.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

NTUC FairPrice will increase its online capacity by 30% in the coming weeks and will reinstate a service fee of$3.99 to all online orders from 8pm on Thursday, according to an announcement

The service fee, which partially covers the total costs of processing, picking, and packing online grocery orders, was first introduced in early March but was waived after.

In addition, a multi-tiered delivery fee structure will also be introduced to provide flexibility for shoppers and make online groceries accessible to more households.

FairPrice said it would continue to hire more people and further increase its online capacity by another 30%

FairPrice Foundation will match the $3.99 service fee for all online orders and pledged to donate up to $500,000 to five organisations in need.

Read more here. 

From Channel News Asia:

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) started investigations into StarHub's two internet service disruptions which lasted hours, according to an announcement.

StarHub users across Singapore reported issues with their internet service on 15 April, with many working from home as part of circuit breaker measures.

IMDA said it would not hesitate to take strong enforcement action if there were any lapses on StarHub's part.

Complaints about the disruption were reported on social media at about 11am on Wednesday. Services were fully restored as of 8.20pm.

StarHub's chief technology officer Chong Siew Loong apologised to customers, confirming that the disruption had come about due to a network issue with one of the telco's domain name servers. 

Read more here.