Daily Briefing: AirAsia to resume Malaysia-Singapore flights; Biotech startup Gero raises $3.02m in series A round

And e-learning marketplace ACKTEC secures undisclosed funding.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

AirAsia is gearing up for the resumption of flights between Malaysia and Singapore, including the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route, following the decision to implement the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL), the low-cost carrier said in a statement.

This would be followed by other international destinations, subject to approval from the authorities

AirAsia will begin by launching daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and one weekly flight each between Singapore and Penang, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, and Ipoh.

These flights were scheduled for the week of 17 August, subject to further announcements by the governments, it said.

AirAsia said it welcomed the decision by the Malaysian and Singapore governments to open up cross-border travel for essential business and official purposes between both countries through the RGL scheme.

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore biotech startup Gero has raised $3.02m (US$2.2m) in a series A round led by Belarus-based Bulba Ventures, according to a press release.

The financing brought the total capital raised by the firm to more than $10.3m (US$7.5m). Previous investors and serial entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical, IT, and AI fields also participated in the latest round.

Co-founder of Bulba Ventures Yury Melnichek has also joined Gero’s board of directors following the investment.

The company plans to use the funds to continue developing its AI platform for analysing clinical and genetic data to find treatments for “complicated” diseases such as age-related chronic illnesses, mental illnesses, and others.

Read more here. 

From e27:

Singapore-based edutech startup ACKTEC Technologies has received an undisclosed investment from a family office to scale ACKTEC KQwest, a learning marketplace that connects industrial partners that are developing accredited, immersive-learning courses with learners across Asia.

The firm plans to use the fund to accelerate ACKTEC’s growth, in line with its vision to serve 100 million learners with over 10,000 enterprise-grade learning contents.

The startup claims to be lowering the barrier to entry to immersive learning, making it accessible to businesses across Asia. Its KQwest product digitises courses by industry partners and accredited learning institutions, and converts them to bite-sized immersive learning content, connecting them with learners looking to up-skill or re-skill with training that is immediately applicable and relevant to their work demands and learning targets.

Its flagship mobile platform ACKTEC Learn delivers engaging and immersive learning content via VR, AR and interactive 3D simulations, without requiring any expensive VR hardware.

Read more here.