Daily Briefing: Carousell's value surges to $850m after merger; HR exec salaries to hit $300,000 in 2020

And Cocoon Capital leads the $1m seed funding for SaaS-based security firm GuardRails.

From CNBC:

Online classifieds business Carousell said it has agreed to merge with a subsidiary of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor Group, valuing the combined company at more than $850 million.

Carousell will merge with Telenor’s 701Search, which owns online marketplaces Mudah in Malaysia, Cho Tot in Vietnam, and OneKyat in Myanmar, as part of the equity and cash agreement, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Telenor will become the single-largest minority shareholder in Carousell with a 32% stake in the combined company.

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From e27:

SaaS-based software security provider GuardRails has raised S$1m in a seed financing round led by Cocoon Capital, Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm.

With the funds from the seed investment, GuardRails said it plans on scaling their team of software engineers, security experts as well as sales and customer success representatives. GuardRails is also adding support for even more programming languages, development platforms, and security testing technologies to allow it to realise their vision of making application security available to all.

GuardRails aims to help developers find, fix, and prevent security vulnerabilities in real-time at a claimed low cost. It was founded by Stefan Streichsbier, a renowned Austrian security expert who co-authored the first certifiable security standard in the European Union for web application security.

Read more here.

From Human Resources Online:

In 2020, HR directors in permanent roles will be able to earn S$220,000 to S$300,000 per annum.

According to Robert Walters’ 2020 Salary Survey, this places the role as the highest earning in the HR function. This was followed by directors of compensation & benefits (a role with the potential to earn S$240,000 or more per annum) and talent management experts (where professionals are able to take home S$150,000 to S$240,000 per year).

When it comes to contract roles, HR directors remain the highest earning, with a monthly salary of S$18,000 to S$25,000; followed by directors of recruitment/talent acquisition, with an earning potential of S$15,000 to S$20,000 a month. While directors of compensation & benefits came in third with an expected monthly salary of S$15,000.

Read more here.