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Humble Sustainability Secures Strategic Investment from ADB Ventures to Drive Expansion Across Southeast Asia

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MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Humble Sustainability (“Humble”), a Philippines-based climate tech startup, has announced a significant milestone in its journey towards creating a circular economy in Southeast Asia. The company has successfully closed a pre-Series A funding round led by Gobi Partners (through its Gobi-Core Philippine Fund) alongside major investors ADB Ventures (ADBV), the Asian Development Bank‘s venture arm, and the Philippines government through the National Development Company (NDC). This strategic investment will enable Humble to expand its operations beyond the Philippines and enhance its technology offerings, particularly by developing its proprietary Climate Dashboard platform.

A Vision for a Circular Economy

An estimated $62.5 billion worth of discarded technology components end up in landfills annually.[1] Humble Sustainability created its B2B trading platform in 2022 to enable corporations to securely recycle and refurbish their used IT equipment, helping them meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals while reducing electronic waste.

Founded in 2021, Humble has emerged as a leader in the climate sector. It is focused on transforming how businesses handle electronic waste. Humble aims to increase the value of unwanted assets by up to five times through its innovative platform, currently boasting a 40% take rate.

CEO and co-founder Josef Werker, inspired by his mother’s activism and the sustainable lifestyle she encouraged growing up, is on a mission to make one billion items circular by 2030. “Achieving sustainability is a team effort. Humble wants to be at the forefront of connecting that ecosystem and inspiring people and businesses to join the collaboration,” said Werker.

Innovating for Impact: The Climate Dashboard

A key component of Humble’s future strategy is the development of its Climate Dashboard. This tool will provide businesses with real-time data on their environmental impact, including greenhouse gas emissions and waste diverted from landfills. The dashboard will first be accessible to Humble’s clients, followed by a public release. Humble’s approach tracks environmental metrics and actively improves them by bringing electronic waste back into circularity.

“The Climate Dashboard is designed to solve one of the biggest challenges businesses face today: understanding and improving their climate impact. We believe that with the right data, companies can set realistic targets, track progress, and ultimately achieve their sustainability goals,” Werker explained.

Strategic Investment from ADB Ventures

The partnership with ADB Ventures is crucial to Humble’s growth strategy. The investment will support Humble’s three-phase expansion plan, beginning with scaling operations within the Philippines and moving into crowded Southeast Asian markets in Indonesia and Thailand by the end of 2026. This expansion will enable Humble to tap into a $13 billion market opportunity across the region, positioning itself as a leading player in the recommerce of electronic assets.

ADB Ventures’ investment will bolster Humble’s tech and sales teams and enhance its B2B marketing efforts. This financial boost is pivotal as Humble plans to launch its B2C model in 2025 to source and sell second-hand items directly to consumers.

“Humble’s innovative platform addresses the challenge of improperly disposed electronic waste in Southeast Asia. By leveraging technology, Humble makes e-waste management efficient and accessible for businesses in the region. Solutions like Humble are essential for driving circular economy practices. We are excited to support Humble’s mission to revolutionise e-waste management and create an environmental impact in the Philippines and beyond,” said Thitirat Sittakaradej of ADB Ventures.

A Word from the National Development Company

“The NDC-SVF has invested in Humble Sustainability because of its crucial role in making the circular economy a reality. Humble has integrated ESG principles into its business by bringing old office equipment back into circularity, allowing businesses and individuals access to affordable, pre-loved electronic assets. This model reduces e-waste and challenges the stigma that second-hand electronics are no longer valuable,” said an NDC spokesperson.

Looking Ahead: Expanding Horizons

As Humble continues to grow, the company remains committed to reducing electronic waste and promoting sustainable practices across Asia. By 2026, Humble plans to explore additional categories, such as clothing, applying its technology-driven circular solutions to new sectors.

With its headquarters in Manila and a holding company in Singapore, Humble is poised to take charge of creating a sustainable future for Southeast Asia and beyond. This latest round of funding provides the resources necessary for expansion and reaffirms its investors’ confidence in Humble’s vision and potential.

About Humble Sustainability

Humble is the Philippines’ leading climate technology company on a mission to bring back one billion items into circularity. We help businesses securely recycle and refurbish their tech equipment and work hand in hand with our clients to create, track and achieve their ESG initiatives.

 

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SOURCE Humble Sustainability

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DeepL unveils industry-first Glossary Generator to solve business communication and brand consistency challenges

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Enhanced DeepL glossary functionality – including new glossary generator, expanded language support and more – will boost global business translations, saving time, effort, and costs

COLOGNE, Germany, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — DeepL, a leading global Language AI company, today announced several updates to its glossary feature, which is a powerful tool that enhances translation consistency and accuracy by enabling professionals and companies to personalize translations for specific terms. The tool now offers the industry’s first smart glossary generator, which helps simplify and speed up the process of creating glossaries for translations. Glossary is also available in several new languages and within DeepL’s browser extensions and integrations, fitting seamlessly into existing workflows to offer an even more accessible and smooth user experience across the web and applications like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

“AI-powered translations are essential for businesses looking to overcome language barriers in today’s increasingly connected world, and DeepL’s powerful glossary tool takes this a step further by ensuring translations are personalized to a company’s unique phrases and needs,” said Christopher Osborne, VP of Product, DeepL. “We’re always looking for ways to improve the DeepL experience and drive even more value and ROI for 100,000+ customers worldwide, and these new capabilities make our glossary even more efficient, accessible and user-friendly – empowering teams to achieve the customization and consistency they are looking for, while minimising time spent on costly alternatives like manual translations or find-and-replace tools.”

For global businesses aiming to drive revenue growth, investing in brand consistency across all communications and languages is essential to ensure that every message—whether technical terminology, product names, or branded terms—resonates clearly with teams, customers, and markets worldwide. Consistent branding has been proven to increase revenue by 20% or more[1] and enhance visibility by 3 to 4 times[2] – however, maintaining this consistency can be expensive and complex. DeepL’s glossary tool simplifies this process, helping businesses and professionals easily create and scale high-quality, consistent multilingual communications across teams. With glossary, companies can create and manage custom translation glossaries to ensure that specific words or phrases are translated consistently according to their unique terminology.

DeepL’s glossary now offers the following expanded capabilities:

The industry’s first smart, AI-powered glossary generator: DeepL’s new glossary generator is a first-of-its-kind tool enabling teams to create custom translation glossaries with a simple file upload. Previously translated files can be leveraged to generate entries for personalized DeepL glossaries, reducing the need for manual work and significantly enhancing efficiency, enabling teams to facilitate more consistent communication at scale.Expanded glossary language functionality: Glossary now supports Korean, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Romanian translations, bringing the total number of languages to 16. This allows for more precise and nuanced translations across a wider range of linguistic contexts, helping businesses reach a broader audience.More convenient access across DeepL platforms: Users are now able to access and apply the glossary directly within the DeepL browser extensions for Chrome and Edge, enabling consistent translations across the web, including Google Workspace applications. Furthermore, the glossary can now also be applied directly within DeepL for Microsoft 365 integrations, including Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Additionally, the glossary can be accessed through DeepL’s web browser, desktop apps, and API.

Unlike other find-and-replace tools, DeepL’s glossary excels with its advanced contextual understanding and ability to process complex grammatical elements—such as case, gender, and tense—to deliver nuanced, natural-sounding translations. This results in substantial productivity gains, largely due to the time saved in post-editing. Blind tests with language experts show that DeepL reduces post-editing time by 30% compared to Google Translate and 20% compared to Chat GPT-4. Furthermore, DeepL requires significantly fewer edits, with Google Translate and Chat GPT-4 needing two to three times as many feedback rounds.

Glossary with DeepL Pro also offers enhanced data security, including proprietary data centers, the highest level of certification and compliance standards (ISO 27001 certification, GDPR/SOC 2 type 2 compliance), data encryption, and a commitment to never using Pro customer data to train models.

DeepL’s glossary generator is now available to Pro Advanced and Ultimate subscribers with support for TMX/DOCX/PDF files. It is initially available for glossaries in German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, French, and Russian (to and from English), with more languages coming soon.

Learn more about DeepL Pro and try out glossary yourself here.

About DeepL

DeepL is on a mission to break down language barriers for businesses everywhere. Over 100,000 businesses and governments and millions of individuals in 228 global markets trust DeepL’s Language AI platform for human-like translation and better writing. Designed with enterprise security in mind, companies around the world leverage DeepL’s AI solutions that are specifically tuned for language to transform business communications, expand markets, and improve productivity. Founded in 2017 by CEO Jaroslaw (Jarek) Kutylowski, DeepL today has over 900 passionate employees and is supported by world-renowned investors including Benchmark, IVP, and Index Ventures.

[1] Marq, “2021 Brand Consistency Report”
[2] Demand Metric x Lucid Press, “Impact of Brand Consistency” Report, 2016

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SOURCE DeepL

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Agoda: Chinese Travelers Post a 137% Increase in International Searches for Upcoming Golden Week

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda has revealed a 137% year-over-year increase in international accommodation searches from China for the upcoming Golden Week. China’s second Golden Week of the year takes place from 1 to 7 October.

Agoda’s accommodation search data reveals a shift in Chinese travelers’ preferences for Golden Week. Last year, the top five outbound destinations were Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Kyoto, and Bangkok, respectively. This year, Seoul has emerged as the number one destination, leapfrogging Tokyo. Bali is a new entry in the top five and takes third place. Bangkok and Osaka continue to be among the most searched destinations and complete the ranking in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Taking place from 1 – 7 October this year, Golden Week is a prime travel period for Chinese families looking to take advantage of the week-long break. Golden Weeks are celebrated twice a year in China, around Lunar New Year and China’s National Day.

Top Outbound Destinations for Golden
Week 2024

(Based on Agoda’s accommodation search data)

      1. Seoul, South Korea

      2. Tokyo, Japan

      3. Bali, Indonesia

      4. Bangkok, Thailand

      5. Osaka, Japan

Andrew Smith, Senior Vice President, Supply at Agoda said, “The increase in outbound travel searches for China’s Golden Week suggests a growing confidence among Chinese citizens to explore international travel. It’s great to see destinations close to China’s east coast like Seoul and Osaka featured in the rank, as well as holiday favorites Bangkok and Bali further south.  With the unique advantage of its ‘Asia hotels’ network, Agoda is committed to helping Chinese customers to experience the rest of Asia for less with its great value deals.”

Agoda continues to support travelers by offering over 4.5 million holiday properties globally, more than 130,000 flight routes, and over 300,000 activities, all of which can be conveniently combined in the same booking. For more information on travel options during China’s Golden Week, visit agoda.com or download the Agoda app.

About Agoda

Agoda, a digital travel platform, helps anyone see the world for less with its great value deals on a global network of 4.5M hotels and holiday properties worldwide, plus flights, activities, and more. Agoda.com and the Agoda mobile app are available in 39 languages and supported by 24/7 customer support.

Headquartered in Singapore, Agoda is part of Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG) and employs more than 6,900 staff in 25 markets, dedicated to leveraging best-in-class technology to make travel even easier.

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SOURCE Agoda

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AECOM supports the Highways Department in winning the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors Awards for innovative road safety technology

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HONG KONG, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — AECOM, the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, today announced that a Road Defect Detection System (RDDS) technology it has developed in partnership with the Highways Department of HKSAR Government (HyD) has secured two prestigious awards from the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS). This RDDS project, under part of the award-winning topic “Sustainability Strategy in Road and Tree Inspection by Advanced Geo-spatial Technology,” integrates advanced geographic information system (GIS) and artificial intelligence technologies to automatically detect road defects. The new technology aims to streamline the road inspection process, improving maintenance efficiency, effectively allocating resources and helping ensure public safety.

“AECOM is dedicated to delivering innovative solutions that meet our clients’ specific needs and address their complex challenges. From deploying the world’s largest tunnel boring machine for the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link project to integrating GeoAI in our Road Defect Detection System, we harness emerging technologies to support the Highways Department in delivering landmark projects that span tunnels, bridges, highways, and now digital solutions,” said Ian Chung, chief executive of AECOM’s Asia region.

The jointly developed RDDS technology responds to the pressing need to effectively survey Hong Kong’s vast and complex road network. To provide a superior alternative to traditional inspection methods, the AECOM and HyD teams developed an approach that automatically detects defects from road images captured by a vehicle-based camera system.

Integrating the two organizations’ geospatial expertise, the technology uses AI to identify cracks and discolored road markings from road images, which can then be viewed on a web application platform that integrates data such as quantity, location, and severity for engineers to review and assess. The multi-step system simplifies the inspection process and allows for more efficient resource allocation — bringing greater efficiency to HyD’s road maintenance work and supporting a safer road network.

The HKIS honored the technology with the Innovative Surveying Award, which commends industry participants for outstanding project quality in innovative surveying technology, and the Post-occupation Category Grand Award, which recognizes the surveyors’ efforts in enhancing work efficiency and precision through innovative technology at post-occupation stage.

The HKIS Awards aim to recognize the outstanding achievements of Hong Kong surveyors. The awards align with the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, affirming surveyors’ exceptional accomplishments in sustainable development projects and their contributions to improving environmental outcomes and promoting a sustainable future for Hong Kong.

For more details about the project, please visit here.

 

 

About AECOM 

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of US$14.4 billion in fiscal year 2023. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at www.aecom.com/hk/.

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SOURCE AECOM

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