Daily Briefing: Japanese internet giant Recruit Holdings launches $33.75m fund for blockchain startups in Singapore; P2P lending platform Validus Capital clinches $20.52m in Series B funding round

And Changi's Prison Complex explores using facial recognition technology.

From Deal Street Asia:

Japanese internet giant Recruit Holdings launched a $33.75m (US$25m) fund targeted at blockchain-related startups in Singapore.

“We recognised the growing importance of exploring business opportunities in this field, and we established the new fund with the aim of rapid investment in related startup companies,” the company said.

In May 2018, Recruit agreed to acquire US-based jobs and salaries portal Glassdoor for US$1.2b in cash, allowing the Japanese firm to gain access to Glassdoor’s extensive cache of content.

Read more here.

From Tech In Asia:

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Validus Capital bagged $20.52m (US$15.2m) in its Series B funding round which will be used to push forward with its expansion into Indonesia and Vietnam.

The funding round was led by Netherlands’ development bank FMO. Also joining the round were Openspace Ventures and Vertex Ventures from Singapore, Taiwan’s Cathay Financial, Vietnam’s VinaCapital Ventures, and Thailand’s Add Ventures.

Co-founder and CEO Ajit Raikar said that the startup expects to launch in Indonesia during Q2 2019. It has applied to register as a tech-based lender with the country’s financial services regulator and signed up local tycoon dynasty, the Rachmat family, as its joint venture partner.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

Changi Prison Complex is exploring the use of facial recognition technology to aid its officers to be more aware of inmates’ behaviours.

It would be the most comprehensive use of facial technology in the prison since the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) set out in 2017 to transform its operations through technological initiatives.
This comes as Singapore goes into facial recognition technology in a big way, with a project lined up to fit cameras and sensors on more than 100.000 lamp-posts, to help authorities perform crowd analytics and support anti-terror operations.

Besides that, a human behavior detection system called Avatar is being tested. It uses video analytics to detect abnormal activities such as fights in the cells and to alert the officers.

Read more here.