Deals of the week: GoTo finally gets to merger; an eye for AI

THESE South-east Asian tech deals made headlines in the past week: 1. GoTo-gether, grow together

INDONESIAN tech giants Gojek and Tokopedia have completed a long-awaited merger to form GoTo Group, a company specialising in e-commerce, on-demand services and financial services.

GoTo will be headed by Gojek's co-chief executive Andre Soelistyo, while Tokopedia president Patrick Cao will serve as GoTo's president.

Talk of a Gojek-Tokopedia merger surfaced early this year, after the Grab-Gojek negotiations fell through. The Business Times understands that the merger will not bring any changes to Gojek's operations in Singapore. 2. Time to impress(.ai) IMPRESS.AI, a startup specialising in enterprise recruitment solutions, has clinched S$4 million in pre-Series A funding led by Summit 29K and joined by Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore.

The funds will be used to expand into new markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accelerate product development, increase marketing and attract more talent.

Launched in 2017, impress.ai taps AI (artificial intelligence) chatbots to evaluate job candidates via a series of assessments and assign an overall metric value to each candidate. The startup said that it has thus far served close to 50 enterprises, including DBS, Singtel, ADB and Ngee Ann Polytechnic. 3. Foodtech? Famous investor Rogers that RENOWNED investor Jim Rogers has joined Singapore-based foodtech company Life3 Biotech as a member of its board of investors. Life3 is the first alternative protein company he is advising.

Together with billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros, Mr Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund and was one of the first Western investors to get into the China stock market back in the 1980s. He also created the Rogers International Commodities Index. He said the plant-based protein market is a fast-growing industry driven by consumer demand from all around the world. The pandemic has shown how food supply chains can get threatened, emphasising the need for non-traditional foods that are sustainable, affordable, storable and transportable.