September 29, 2022

Triller Inc. Secures $310 Million Equity Funding from Global Emerging Markets (GEM) in connection with Upcoming Public Listing

Company Expects to be Publicly Trading in Early Q4 Under Symbol “ILLR”

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Triller Inc.(“Triller”) and GEM Global Yield LLC SCS (“GGY”) today announced a binding $310 million investment from GEM, the Luxembourg based private alternative investment group, in the form of a share subscription facility. Under the agreement, GEM will provide Triller with up to $310 million in equity capital for a 36-month term following a public listing of Triller’s common stock.

Triller will not be obligated to draw the full $310 million but can do so in part or in whole at its discretion. Triller will control both the timing and amount of all drawdowns and will issue stock to GEM on each drawn down from the facility. Triller will also issue warrants to GEM, further aligning the interests of the companies.

Triller filed its private S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month and is submitting what it anticipates being the final S-1 concurrently with the closing of this facility. The expectation is that trading will commence in early Q4 2022.

“Triller has been growing tremendously,” said Mahi de Silva, CEO and Chairman of Triller. “At our inception in 2019, we were a zero-revenue company; now we are on track to break $100 million in revenue this year. The Triller app has been downloaded more than 350 million times, and the company works with dozens of the world’s largest brands and thousands of top artists, disrupting the entire creator community.”

Triller has 10 business lines, eight of which are at break-even or profitable, and effectuates 750 million interactions per quarter, each of which is a potential monetizable transaction for the company in the future.

With the capital infusion from GEM, Triller will be able to make additional acquisitions to strengthen its toolbox for the creator community and reach breakeven or profitability in the short-term. Assuming it draws upon the full $310 million equity facility, Triller will have raised more than $600 million dollars and, upon its IPO, will be virtually debt free.

“Triller is breaking all the rules of the closed garden systems. It is challenging the way the old establishment takes advantage of creators and users by keeping 99 percent of the money within the system for itself,” said De Silva. “The reason the industry is so set on MAU, DAU and the like is that is how much time someone spends within one company’s particular closed garden and means that the social networks ‘own’ the user, revenue, brand and information.

“Triller breaks that system wide open. As an open garden, our goal is to put the power back in the hands of the creators and users, allowing creators and brands to connect directly. We provide tools to maximize those connections and how well each can be monetized. In addition, looking at the number of interactions we facilitate helps us to forecast future revenue since each one of those is a potential transaction fee for us.”

About Triller Inc.

Triller is the AI-powered open garden technology platform for creators. Pairing music culture with sports, fashion, entertainment, and influencers through a 360-degree view of content and technology, Triller encourages its influencers to post the content created on the app across different social media platforms and uses proprietary AI technology to push and track their content virally to affiliated and non-affiliated sites and networks, enabling them to reach millions of additional users. Triller additionally owns VERZUZ, the live-stream music platform; combat sports brands Triller Fight Club, Triad Combat and BKFC; Amplify.ai, a leading customer engagement platform; FITE.tv, a premier global PPV, AVOD, and SVOD streaming service; Thuzio, a leader in B2B premium influencer events and experiences; Fangage, a platform for creators to engage fans and monetize content and Julius, a platform for brands and agencies to harness creators for social engagement and social commerce.

About GEM
Global Emerging Markets (“GEM”) is a $3.4 billion, Luxembourg based private alternative investment group with offices in Paris, New York and The Bahamas. GEM manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets and has completed over 530 transactions in over 70 countries. Each investment vehicle has a different degree of operational control, risk-adjusted return, and liquidity profile. The family of funds and investment vehicles provide GEM and its partners with exposure to: Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities and select venture investments. For more information: http://www.gemny.com

Tony Freinberg
President, Edendale Strategies
tony@edendalestrategies.com
(310) 614-1435

September 29, 2022

Vinamilk recognized as “The 6th Most Valuable Dairy Brand” globally in 2022 by Brand Finance

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Vinamilk, Vietnam’s leading dairy manufacturer has reached a new milestone by being ranked 6th position in the Top 10 Most Valuable Dairy Brands by Brand Finance.

The US$2.8 billion valuation this year sees an impressive 18% increase as compared to 2021, reaffirms Vinamilk’s leading position. Specifically, in the dairy segment, the brand was ranked the Most Potential Dairy Brand and continues to appear in the Top 5 Strongest Dairy Brands, coming in 2^nd place – a remarkable result for Vinamilk as the only Southeast Asia representative in the Top 10 ranking for both brand value and strength. Vinamilk also leaves its footprint in major Food rankings such as Top 30 Most Valuable Food Brands and Top 10 Strongest Food Brands.

Furthermore, according to the nationwide report, Brand Finance also recognized Vinamilk as the Most Valuable Food Brand in Vietnam.

“The significant role of the brand is well aware by Vinamilk throughout the development of the company, especially in F&B and the dairy industry in particular. Throughout our 46-year journey, Vinamilk has continuously built the company’s brand value in accordance to our core pillars – product quality, service and our reputation amongst consumers”, said Mrs. Bui Thi Huong, Vinamilk Chief Director of Admin, HR & PR.

Vinamilk’s recent activities in Australia Fine Food trade fair

She also believes Vietnamese businesses will focus and put all their effort in achieving higher rankings on global rankings, affirming the position and value of Vietnamese national brands.

Every year, Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the world’s biggest brands in 29 industries throughout 39 countries under its test. With an integrated measurement method, considering various brand factors such as impact, health and reputation, investment and others combined with financial and survey data, the annual Food and Drink report published by Brand Finance provides brand health assessments in a transparent, fair and objective manner.

The changes when compared to Brand Finance’s 2021 report suggest that brands that invest in intrinsic strength, as well as focus on core values and long-term vision, are more likely to overcome uncertainty in turbulent times, and are developing further through innovation and continuity to meet growing consumer needs.

Vinamilk’s investments have also been positively recognized by other local and international organizations. The Brand Footprint 2022 report published by Worldpanel, Kantar signified Vinamilk’s decade-long achievements in maintaining leading positions in the Top 10 Most Chosen Dairy Brands in Vietnam.

In addition, Vinamilk was also honored for the 10th consecutive time in Forbes Vietnam’s 50 Best Listed Companies and has been recognized as one of “Vietnam Value” brands by VIETRADE since 2010.

Present in 57 countries and territories with a total accumulated export turnover of US$2.75 billion, Vinamilk continues to research and develop new products to increase its penetration to key export markets.

Since the beginning of 2022, the company has actively participated in a number of international trade activities and food fairs in China, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, and Australia to introduce Vinamilk’s range of products, as well as seeking opportunities for its international expansion.

About Vinamilk

Founded in 1976, Vinamilk is the leading dairy company in Vietnam which is listed among the Top 40 largest nutrition companies in the world by revenue and Top 10 of the world’s most valuable dairy brands. Vinamilk currently manages 17 factories, 15 dairy farms in Vietnam and overseas.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1910811/1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1910812/Vinamilk_Brand_Value_Graph__1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1910813/KDQT__c_1.jpg

September 29, 2022September 30, 2022

Cholera wreaking havoc in Malawi

LILONGWE, (CAJ News) – NO less than 99 people have died from a resurgent outbreak of cholera in Malawi this year.

The outbreak has been raging from March.

As of this week, the cumulative confirmed cases reported are 3 314.

This represents a case fatality rate of 3 percent.

A total of 3 143 people have recovered and 71 are currently admitted in treatment centres.

Some 22 from over 27 districts have reported cholera cases since the confirmation of the first.

The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations has mobilised EUR 100 000 through the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to respond to the cholera outbreak in the Southern African country.

This will support over 753 000 people – before the rainy season – for a period of four months.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingesting contaminated food or water.

Source: CAJ News Agency

September 29, 2022September 30, 2022

UN: Food Loss, Waste Exacerbate Global Hunger, Climate Change

U.N. agencies are calling for an end to food loss and waste as the United Nations marks the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste Thursday.

A U.N. Environment Program report says over 930 million tons of food waste were generated in 2019. The chief of UNEP’s energy and climate branch, Mark Radka, said that represents about 20% of available food.

“There is evidence that household food waste is generated at a similar per capita level in all countries, regardless of country income level,” he said. “So, households, on average generate about 74 kilograms per person, per year in food waste.”

It has serious implications, given the U.N.’s latest estimates that 828 million people globally are going hungry. Food and Agriculture Organization findings indicate 14% of the world’s food is lost after harvest. An estimated 17% is wasted in retail and at the consumption stage.

FAO Senior Enterprise Development Officer Rosa Rolle calls food loss and waste a global problem that has significant impact on climate, food security, and the sustainability of agri-food systems.

“Over the past two years, agri-food systems across the globe have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine, pushing millions of people into food insecurity, with hunger and malnutrition on the rise,” she said.

The FAO says food waste and loss accelerate climate change and harm the environment. It says about 31% of total greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming, are attributable to the agri-food system.

The UNEP says reducing food loss and waste could decrease methane emissions by 15% by 2030. It notes methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. It says at least 25% of today’s global warming by methane is caused by human action.

Source: Voice of America

September 29, 2022September 30, 2022

New Asteroid Strike Images Show Impact Much Bigger Than Expected

The James Webb and Hubble telescopes on Thursday revealed their first images of a spacecraft deliberately smashing into an asteroid, as astronomers indicated that the impact looks to have been much greater than expected.

The world’s telescopes turned their gaze toward the space rock Dimorphos earlier this week for a historic test of Earth’s ability to defend itself against a potential life-threatening asteroid in the future.

Astronomers rejoiced as NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor slammed into its pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped target 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth on Monday night.

Images taken by Earth-bound telescopes showed a vast cloud of dust expanding out of Dimorphos — and its big brother Didymos, which it orbits — after the spaceship hit.

While those images showed matter spraying out over thousands of kilometers, the James Webb and Hubble images “zoom in much closer,” said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast involved in observations with the ATLAS project.

James Webb and Hubble can offer a view “within just a few kilometers of the asteroids and you can really clearly see how the material is flying out from that explosive impact by DART,” Fitzsimmons told AFP.

“It really is quite spectacular,” he said.An image taken by James Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) four hours after impact shows “plumes of material appearing as wisps streaming away from the center of where the impact took place,” according to a joint statement from the European Space Agency, James Webb and Hubble.

Hubble images from 22 minutes, five hours and eight hours after impact show the expanding spray of matter from where DART hit.

‘Worried there was nothing left’

Ian Carnelli of the European Space Agency (ESA) said that the “really impressive” Webb and Hubble images were remarkably similar to those taken by the toaster-sized satellite LICIACube, which was just 50 kilometers from the asteroid after separating from the DART spacecraft a few weeks ago.

The images depict an impact that looks “a lot bigger than we expected,” said Carnelli, the manager of the ESA’s Hera mission, which intends to inspect the damage in four years.

“I was really worried there was nothing left of Dimorphos” at first, Carnelli told AFP.

The Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and arrive at the asteroid in 2026, had expected to survey a crater around 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter.

It now looks like it will be far bigger, Carnelli said, “if there is a crater at all; maybe a piece of Dimorphos was just chunked off.”

The true measure of DART’s success will be exactly how much it diverted the asteroid’s trajectory, so the world can start preparing to defend itself against bigger asteroids that could head our way in the future.

It will likely take Earth-bound telescopes and radars at least a week for a first estimate of how much the asteroid’s orbit has been altered, and three or four weeks before there is a precise measurement, Carnelli said.

‘Huge implications’

“I am expecting a much bigger deflection than we had planned,” he said.

That would have “huge implications in planetary defense because it means that this technique could be used for much larger asteroids,” Carnelli added.

“Until today, we thought that the only deflection technique would be to send a nuclear device.”

Fitzsimmons said that even if no material had been “flung off” Dimorphos, DART still would have slightly affected its orbit.

“But the more material and the faster it’s moving, the more of a deflection there will have been,” he said.

The observations from James Webb and Hubble will help reveal how much — and how quickly — matter sprayed from the asteroid, as well as the nature of its surface.

The asteroid impact marked the first time the two space telescopes observed the same celestial body.

Since launching in December and releasing its first images in July, James Webb has taken the title of most powerful space telescope from Hubble.

Fitzsimmons said the images were “a beautiful demonstration of the extra science you can get by using more than one telescope simultaneously.”

Source: Voice of America

September 29, 2022

Eidosmedia partners with Sophi.io on AI-powered print automation

The partnership integrates Sophi.io’s AI technology into Eidosmedia’s editorial platform, bringing seamless ML-powered print laydown automation to Eidosmedia customers

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Eidosmedia, a developer of digital publishing solutions for leading news-media groups worldwide, has partnered with Sophi.io, an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, to bring seamless print laydown automation to Eidosmedia customers.

The solution brings the entire print page layout process down from hours to just minutes, without the use of templates. Publishers can dramatically improve productivity and cut costs, all within the Méthode platform they currently use.

“The complexity of print page layouts has until now defied the easy automation that speeds the publishing of online formats,” said Marco Cetola, Eidosmedia Sales and Partner Program Director. “For our customers, especially large regional groups and national titles, print editions continue to be a major source of revenue. There’s intense interest in ways to cut production times and costs in this important publishing channel.”

“The fit between our print edition building routines and Sophi’s AI engine turned out to be very good,” said Marco. “We were quickly able to start training the pagination model on existing layouts, and we had the first results in a matter of days”.

“The productivity boost obtained is exceptional,” said Marco, “especially for daily publications where the page-design operation is usually running against the clock.” In fact, a typical 32-page print edition can be paginated in minutes compared to several hours for a manual operation.

Sophi-powered print automation is different than other print production solutions in that it is completely template-free. It uses smart AI to ensure that a publisher’s printed pages look and feel as though they were produced by experienced editors and page designers. Each page is designed from scratch following each individual brand’s design vocabulary. The final output is a print-ready PDF or InDesign file that’s ready in minutes.

Among those who stand to benefit from the new technology are page designers themselves. Page designers have been under pressure for some time to increase their productivity as publishers try to cut costs. With fewer hands to lay out growing numbers of pages, the designer’s job has in many cases become a stressful race against time. The automation engine will take routine tasks off their hands so they can devote more time to the front pages, features and special layouts where their creativity can really add value.

“Page automation is the greatest innovation in the publishing industry since the personal computer replaced typewriters,” said Marco.

Gabe Gonda, VP at Sophi.io, commented: “Sophi is delighted to be entering a partnership with Eidosmedia to deliver our print automation technology through the Méthode platform. Eidosmedia is a first-class CMS vendor with deep knowledge of its clients’ evolving needs. This partnership will help deliver a unique and high-value solution to some of the best newspaper publishers in the world.”

About Eidosmedia

Eidosmedia (www.eidosmedia.com) is a global leader in content management and digital publishing. Eidosmedia solutions are used by news-media organizations throughout the world to create and deliver portfolios of news products ranging from advanced digital formats to traditional newspapers and magazines.

About Sophi Inc.

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML-powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one-click automated laydown of template-free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business.

Contact Us

Marco Cetola
Sales and Partner Program Director
Eidosmedia SpA
marco.cetola@eidosmedia.com
+390236732202

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing
Sophi Inc.
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com
416-585-3355