BeatO – India's leading digital care ecosystem for chronic condition management – has raised USD 5.7 million in funding led by US-based venture capital firm, W Health Ventures. The funding also saw participation from e-pharmacy Unicorn PharmEasy (a Threpsi Solutions Pvt Ltd brand), Merisis VP and existing investors Orios VP, Leo Capital, and others. With this new funding, BeatO has raised more than USD 10 million over the last year across its Series A and Pre-series B rounds. The fresh funds will be utilized across two key areas – growth in subscriber base across multiple channels and geographies, and product enhancement to provide care for other cardiometabolic conditions.

BeatO's digital health platform combines real-time monitoring through its IoT-connected devices and app ecosystem to provide AI-driven personalized insights and proactive intervention by doctors and health coaches to patients with chronic conditions. With around 463 million people with diabetes and 1.13 billion with hypertension across the world, BeatO seeks to expand its presence beyond India to the ASEAN countries, Middle East and the US to provide better health outcomes to people with chronic conditions. BeatO recently entered the ASEAN market by launching operations in Singapore.

Commenting on the new funding, Gautam Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO – BeatO, said, "Diabetes and Hypertension have been the major killers in this pandemic. With our holistic tech-based solution that supports end to end management for these conditions, we have a proven product and technology with a highly engaged and rapidly growing member base. We welcome our new partners in our exciting journey as we continue to address this large global problem and positively impact millions of lives."

"We're impressed with BeatO's unparalleled patient experience and outstanding clinical results. The Company's exponential growth is driven by its ability to transcend geographical and socio-economic barriers. We're thrilled to join the BeatO team in this exciting journey of making affordable, accessible, and world-class diabetes care a reality for millions of people across the world," said Dr. Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President at W Health Ventures.

After the COVID-19 outbreak in India, BeatO has seen a significant double-digit month-on-month growth both in members and revenues. BeatO has expanded to 500,000 app installs and 300,000 paid members (adding 25,000 paid members every month). Revenues have soared 600% in the same period and the Company is clocking an annual gross revenue run-rate of USD 10 million. BeatO's growth is backed by a sharp increase in patient engagement and robust customer retention. This can largely be attributed to BeatO's user-friendly app (which makes measuring and tracking blood glucose levels easy), real-time actionable insights and data-driven proactive intervention via BeatO's health coaches and doctors.

Higher engagement is driving better clinical outcomes. BeatO's real-world evidence-based studies have been published in the prestigious American Diabetes Association and the Advanced Technologies and Treatment for Diabetes forums. These large population-based studies from India demonstrated that within 30 days, BeatO's program is effective in reducing mean blood glucose levels by 10% and for patients prone to hypoglycaemia, the program is effective in reducing hypoglycaemia incidence by 52%.

Perx Technologies, the SaaS leader in dynamic, mobile-first customer engagement and loyalty, today announced the launch of its category creating product – The Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform (Perx LMP). Traditional static loyalty and rewards programs are no longer working in a rapidly evolving digital economy. They are expensive to maintain and have become a liability affecting the bottom line of brands globally. Today's customers come in many forms. As consumer and ecosystem partners' behavior rapidly evolves, Perx believes that the manner in which brands engage them needs a rethink. Perx's LMP is purpose-built to enable brands to shift from being transient and transactional to delivering meaningful relationships with their ecosystem across millions of customers and partners globally.

Perx launches the world's first lifestyle marketing platform to transform mobile-first customer engagement.

As a first of its kind, the platform creates a new category within the global marketing technology ecosystem.

Regional and global brands have driven over USD 400M in top line contribution in the last three years using the platform.

Powered by hyper-personalization, advanced gamification and sophisticated rules engine capabilities Perx LMP re-energizes a brand's customer experience and loyalty engagement strategy by syncing it with the daily lifestyle choices of its customers. The platform enables marketers and digital teams to drive and monetize customer actions and increase customer-brand touchpoints by reimagining the digital consumer journey.

There are three key market trends that necessitate the introduction of a new category called Lifestyle Marketing in the Martech space. First, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated the need for businesses to become digital and mobile-first. In 2020 with the average consumer spending close to four hours each day on a smartphone, 332 million people came online for the first time globally to bank, shop, play and order food.

Second, the rise of the mobile-first instant gratification economy has made brands realise the limitation of present day marketing technology stacks to support building unique 'aha moments' into traditional digital customer journeys; from acquisition to last mile redemption and more importantly, every user action in-between. With 73% of the world's mobile phone users owning a smartphone, brands globally are exploring how to innovate beyond their core business models to establish a 'super-app like' services ecosystem tailored around their closed loop customers.

Lastly, today almost all marketing technology platforms are designed mainly to drive vanity metrics such as eyeballs, clicks, and open rates, rather than contributing to top-line growth. The outcomes are static, unengaging, and transient customer engagements that abruptly end in an SMS, email or social media post.

But, critical to any engagement strategy is the customers' last-mile journey. The Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform extends this last-mile beyond usual stopovers through interactive, gamified, and incentive-led engagements that nudge customers to complete the actions and transactions that the marketer and the brand actually intended to drive. Perx has also launched the Rewards Marketplace that offers an elaborate curated list of merchant rewards aligned to the lifestyles of the digital consumer. In just 3 simple clicks, brands can stand up to the instant gratification trend by rewarding customers for their actions through personalized lifestyle rewards. Moreover, brands that want to stand up their own in-app, mobile commerce store and build a new revenue stream can now do so without heavy investments or resource allocation.

Here's what Stephanie Kubota, CEO of RUSH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, the largest telecom operator in the Philippines, said, "The Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform is one of the sharpest tools in our marketing toolkit. Everything is just a few clicks away, from slicing and dicing target personas to identifying and launching dynamic experiences that nudge and trigger customer actions. In our recent execution with Perx, we drove over a million customer actions, targeting a specific test segment, in just 100 days from the point of onboarding, and, over 70% of them were actions that contributed to the top-line growth of the brands."

Commenting on why Starhub chose to implement the Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform, Maneesh Verma, VP, Customer Lifecycle Management, said, "Even though there are many martech platforms out there for us to choose from, we didn't want to settle with any of the traditional or status-quo ones. Unlike other solutions, Perx's Lifestyle Marketing Platform actually drives meaningful customer engagements and is built to digitally engage better. An outcome of that is more customer stickiness and real customer actions that contribute to the top-line."

Commenting on why hoolah chose the Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform, Stuart Thornton, CEO & Co-Founder, said, "As a digital native in the Buy Now Pay Later space, our goal is to provide flexibility to consumers in a world filled with constraints and do so responsibly. We chose the Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform to build meaningful engagements in our hoolah ecosystem between consumers, partners and merchants. Perx LMP will help us augment the natural value of the hoolah platform by further driving customer acquisition and retention through personalisation and dynamic in-app engagements that reward customers for their every action."

Regarding the launch of the Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform and the Rewards Marketplace, Anna Gong, CEO & Founder of Perx Technologies, said, "The Perx Lifestyle Marketing Platform enables brands to lead with engagement and not loyalty, innovate beyond their core business models and create a monetizable lifestyle ecosystems around their closed-loop network of consumers, partners, and merchants. This approach not only allows brands globally to better address and solve customer lifestyle wants and needs but also builds a moat around those customers by drastically increasing brand touchpoints. With advanced gamification and campaign automation capabilities, hyper-personalised and instantly gratifying incentives, the platform has proven to be an effective enabler of the digital lifestyle ecosystems for enterprises and digital natives."

Zouk Group Unveils Unmatched Talent Roster For Ayu Dayclub And Zouk Nightclub At Resorts World Las Vegas, Reveals Sunday Concept Party. Matched with one-of-a-kind technology, design and hospitality, Zouk Group will offer guests unparalleled experiences unlike anything on the Las Vegas Strip. The diverse lineup of talent, spanning a variety of music genres, will feature headlining artists including: Becky G, DJ Snake, Madison Beer. The unmatched roster will provide can't-miss performances throughout the summer at Ayu Dayclub – both during the day and throughout the night for special nighttime programming called Ayu Nights – as well as sets at Zouk Nightclub when the venue debuts this fall.

On July 4, Zouk Group will also debut, Moonbeam – a day-to-night Sunday concept party at Ayu Dayclub that will transport guests from the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip to a tropical oasis. Inspired by idyllic events of popular party destinations like Tulum and Ibiza, the party will be energized by the sun in the afternoon and powered by the moon into the evening and late night, offering a unique experience with special performances and themed activations like hair braid bars, art installations, retail opportunities, shareable photo moments and more.

"Zouk Group continues to plant its flag as a pioneer in the nightlife industry, showcasing the best talent over the past 30 years at our venues, and the diverse music lineup at Resorts World Las Vegas is no exception," said Andrew Li, Chief Executive Officer of Zouk Group. "We can't wait to bring our entertainment philosophy to Las Vegas and introduce the Zouk Group experience to the U.S. for the first time."

Zouk Group is Singapore's leading lifestyle and entertainment company and has been at the forefront of pioneering music movements in Asia for over 29 years. Zouk Group and Resorts World Las Vegas previously announced their partnership in November 2020 to bring multiple entertainment and lifestyle concepts to the 3,500-room integrated resort.

About Resorts World Las Vegas  

Resorts World Las Vegas is being developed by Genting Berhad, a publicly traded Malaysian corporation registered with the Nevada Gaming Commission. The company has affiliated operations in the Americas, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Bahamas. Resorts World Las Vegas is one of the largest hotel construction sites in the U.S., rapidly moving forward with over 3,000 construction workers on-site daily at the nearly 88-acre site. In partnership with Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Resorts World Las Vegas will integrate three of Hilton's premium brands into its resort campus, including Las Vegas Hilton, the resort's full-service brand; Conrad Las Vegas, Hilton's lifestyle luxury brand; and LXR, Hilton's network of independent luxury properties, which will operate as Crockfords Las Vegas, Genting's internationally renowned ultra-luxury brand. Resorts World Las Vegas will feature 3,500 guest rooms and suites, an innovative, next-generation gaming floor, world-class food and beverage options, a 5,000-capacity theatre, distinct nightlife venues, a curated retail collection of designer and boutique shops, and more. The integrated resort will weave time-honored traditions of the international Resorts World brand into the fabric of Las Vegas, introducing a bold, fresh take on hospitality to the city with stunning design, progressive technology and world-class guest service. Resorts World Las Vegas is Sharecare Health Security VERIFIED™ with Forbes Travel Guide, a verification that ensures the resort has appropriate health safety procedures in place.

About Genting Group

Genting Group comprises Genting Berhad (KLSE: GENTING), the holding company, and its listed companies Genting Malaysia Berhad (KLSE: GENM), Genting Plantations Berhad (KLSE: GENP) and Genting Singapore Limited (SGX: G13). Genting Group is involved in leisure and hospitality, palm oil plantations, power generation, oil and gas, property development, life sciences and biotechnology activities, with operations spanning across the globe, including in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, China, the United States of America, Bahamas and the United Kingdom. Genting Group is a leader in the global gaming and hospitality industry. Founded in 1965, Genting Group has more than 50 years of experience in developing and operating destination resorts in the Americas, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Bahamas, offering an unparalleled resort experience and iconic entertainment attractions to over 50 million visitors a year.

About Zouk Group

Zouk Group is a global lifestyle company with establishments that span across nightlife, entertainment, and dining sectors. Its namesake, Zouk, is a 29-year-old nightlife brand known for pushing boundaries of dance music and propelling Singapore on the global map. Ranked Asia's best club on DJ Mag's annual Top 100 Clubs list since 2017 and top globally since 2010, Zouk is Singapore's foremost clubbing institution, delivering the freshest in dance music across genres, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, a constant roster of stellar international, regional and local residents, and top-notch service and hospitality.

Zouk has since evolved into an all-encompassing global lifestyle brand that has expanded into the food & beverage sector with new brands like social gaming bar RedTail, vibe dining restaurant FUHU, and more concepts in the pipeline. Aside from club offerings, Zouk Group also owns ZoukOut, Asia's premier dawn-to-dusk music festival featuring world class DJs, which attracts a cosmopolitan mix of locals and tourists within and beyond Asia to the beachfront of Singapore. Zouk Group now oversees all club and lifestyle entities in Singapore, Genting Highlands in Malaysia, on board Genting-owned cruise ship, and soon to come, Las Vegas. The company also owns the franchise to Five Guys in Singapore and Malaysia.

Pa Pa Party time!

Jambox Games raises $1.1 million for next-generation competitive game publishing platform.

Jambox Games, a Singapore-based start-up, has launched a competitive game publishing platform to help indie developers in India and Southeast Asia to publish their games, and compete with the global incumbents.

With a focus on casual and hyper casual games that are hugely popular in the region among Gen Z, millennials as well as female gamers, Jambox Games aims to offer a tool-kit that integrates analytics, attribution, user acquisition and monetization, allowing developers to focus solely on the game design and development. It will also build custom competitive formats to help improve revenue and retention for these genres.

It is led by Vikas Gulati, a 22-year veteran in adtech, gaming and start-ups, who was formerly the regional MD at AdColony and Opera, and has built multiple startups in Asia. The underlying rationale for Jambox Games is to enable developers to build high-quality games and gain traction, drive retention, as well as monetize effectively.

Leading Gaming Investor Ludus Venture Studio is leading the round with seed funding of US$1.1 million along with other seasoned angel investors.

Commenting on the raise, Jambox Games CEO and Founder Vikas Gulati said: " Building a successful gaming franchise is more science than art. There is a huge gap and market opportunity for an independent platform that can power developers and their games to compete at the global level. Growth, user acquisition, analytics and monetization have become a 'big boys' club'. "

He added: "Southeast Asia has tremendous talent and developers understand their users intimately. Some of the games developed have huge potential with multiplayer and social formats. Developers just need the right partner and platform to grow the games."

Commented Volkan Bicer, Partner, Ludus Venture Studio, "We are extremely excited to participate in the fast growing gaming market of SEA and India. Gaming is now established as mainstream entertainment. Vikas is a rare talent with visionary leadership and great execution capabilities. Jambox Games is solving a real developer pain point for emerging markets like India and Southeast Asia. With its unique "East to West'' focus of bringing titles from emerging Southeast Asia to the Western markets, Jambox Games has the ability to emerge as a market leader".

The core team comprises Head of Product, Ravi Vyas, Ex MoEngage, YourStory & Vserv; Publishing Director, Khiem Le who brings 14 years of experience in Gaming across Gameloft & Amanotes and Rakshak Kalwani, Independent Designer and Developer of Casual Games, many of them featured on the AppStore.

Jambox Games is looking to launch the platform in Vietnam, India, and Indonesia initially before scaling to Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

About Jambox Games:

A new venture-backed Singapore & India based Mobile Game Publishing Platform, on a mission to re-imagine and redefine how mobile game publishing is done today.

The vision is to create the largest Free to Play, next-generation competitive game publishing platform in Asia. The company is a start-up and is looking to establish its presence in India and Southeast Asia. The founder and core team have deep experience in Game Publishing & Adtech and have built and managed over $200mn business in their previous roles.

About Ludus Venture Studio:

Ludus is a venture studio that finds, invests in, and nurtures the best startups in its class in the gaming vertical. With its advisors and board members who carry a wealth of knowledge across the mobile industry, they aim to lead the venture studio model in Turkey by providing in-house expertise, strategic guidance, and funding. Ludus carries great emphasis in sharing the same goals and mindset as their partners of business and ensures that they can work as a single team as opposed to being just an investor and reach global success.