e27 Digital News

For many companies expanding into Southeast Asia, hiring is no longer the hardest part. The bigger challenge is often what comes after: setting up a local entity, complying with employment regulations, running payroll and moving money across borders without unnecessary delays or excessive costs. Singapore-headquartered TalentHero, co-founded by Oliver Lewis (CEO) and James Miles (COO), The post TalentHero, DeeMoney form Thai JV to connect hiring, payroll and payments appeared first on e27.

Anyone who has spent 10 minutes pressing “0” to escape a voice bot knows how the last automation wave ended. Call centres were promised dramatic savings from IVRs and chatbots. Customers got phone trees that went in circles, and companies got a fresh layer of complaints to manage. Sunny Rao sold that promise from the The post Tokens are the wrong yardstick for AI agents, says JFrog’s Sunny Rao appeared first on e27.

Anthropic has finally given its Singapore customers somewhere to knock. The San Francisco-based AI lab opened an office in the city-state on Wednesday, its fifth in the Asia Pacific, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) that puts AI safety testing at the centre of the The post Anthropic’s Singapore MOU bets on safety testing, not consumer reach appeared first on e27.

An AI chatbot that drafts a bad email is an embarrassment. An AI agent that sends it, to the wrong customer, with the wrong file attached, after approving the wrong refund, is a liability. Singapore’s regulators have clearly been losing sleep over the second scenario. On Wednesday, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced three The post Singapore’s next AI industry may be the people who check the agents appeared first on e27.

In early 2018, Yujun Chean and Prateek Jogani were selling car insurance with a cashback twist. Their Singapore startup, Vouch Insurtech, had just raised SGD1 million (then US$755,000) in seed funding as the parent of Thai insurtech FairDee. Eight years on, the pair are back with a much bigger cheque and a far more crowded The post Parallel Loop nets US$6.6M to sell enterprises the one thing AI models lack: context appeared first on e27.

Singapore’s war on scams has mostly been fought far from the victim: in police operations centres, bank back offices and, more recently, in rulebooks telling platforms what they must block. Now the city-state wants part of that fight to happen inside the phone itself. Google on Wednesday announced two initiatives with the Singapore Government, unveiled The post Singapore wants Google’s AI to catch scammers before victims hit send appeared first on e27.

When the Ministry of Trade and Industry raised Singapore’s 2026 growth forecast in August, most of the founders I talk to read it the way the headlines invited them to, as good news for everyone. The revision was large. MTI moved its forecast from 2.0 to 4.0 per cent up to 4.5 to 5.5 per The post Read the sectors, not the headline: What Singapore’s growth upgrade tells SEA founders appeared first on e27.

Picture a Singapore account manager answering a Slack message at 10.47 pm, ninety seconds after it lands. Her manager did not ask for a reply tonight. Nobody will remember tomorrow that she gave one. And if new survey data is to be believed, it will do almost nothing for her career. She would not be The post 85 per cent of Singapore employers expect staff to be always on. Half offer no help appeared first on e27.

Bitcoin rose 0.89 per cent to US$83,264.98 over the past 24 hours, a gain that looks modest when set beside the 1.12 per cent increase in the total crypto market cap. This relationship matters. The largest digital asset did not climb because of a regulatory breakthrough or a huge institutional purchase. It climbed because capital The post The US$84,245 resistance is hours away from being tested. Will buyers show up or fold? appeared first on e27.

Bangkok-based financial health platform Salary Hero has raised US$7.6 million in a Series A round of investment led by Cento Ventures, with Malaysia’s Kairous Capital and M Venture Partners participating. The startup has also expanded its credit facility with regional banks and lenders to US$10 million, and is using the money to formally enter Malaysia, The post Salary Hero lands US$7.6M Series A to take its fight against loan sharks to Malaysia appeared first on e27.