Tag Bengaluru

Bengaluru, 16 March 2024: Celebrating the art of strategy and the rising interest in used cars among consumers, Spinny, the full-stack used car retailer, recently hosted the exhilarating chess event, Checkmate Park, in collaboration with the Bangalore Chess Club. The event took place at Spinny Park in Bengaluru.

Nestled in the backdrop of over 1000+ cars and a serene lake view, Spinny Park provided the perfect setting for an unforgettable chess tournament. With the support of renowned chess hubs, the event provided an unforgettable experience for players of all skill levels. From seasoned veterans to aspiring newcomers, approximately 100 participants engaged in strategic matches throughout the day. The event not only provided a platform for players to compete but strengthened a sense of community and camaraderie among chess enthusiasts in Bengaluru.

Mr. Anshuman Karangi, City Head, Bengaluru “We are thrilled to have organized such an event in collaboration with Bangalore Chess Club. The overwhelming response from participants makes us believe in the growing passion for chess in Bengaluru. We are committed to nurturing and making Spinny Parks as cultural hubs for each city, we are looking forward to hosting Bengaluraons to more events.

The event featured intense competition across various age groups, with participants showcasing their tactical acumen and strategic thinking in each match. As the day drew to a close, participants departed with fond memories of challenging matches, new friendships, and a heightened awareness of the increasing demand for used cars

Spread across 5 acres, Spinny Park sports an assortment of cars, including over 1000 Spinny Assured cars and Spinny Max pre-owned luxury cars. The exquisitely designed experiential hub is replete with in-venue test-drive zones, specially curated interactive dashboards, customer lounges, and community zones.

Spinny operates more than 55 car hubs across the country with a total parking capacity of close to 10,000 cars. In Bangalore, Spinny is already operating six car hubs with a total parking capacity of 1200 cars. With the addition of Spinny Park Bengaluru, the total capacity in the city will reach 2200 cars.

Celebrating the art of strategy and the rising interest in used cars among consumers, Spinny, the full-stack used car retailer, recently hosted the exhilarating chess event, Checkmate Park, in collaboration with the Bangalore Chess Club and chess.com. The event took place at Spinny Park in Bengaluru.

Nestled in the backdrop of over 1000+ cars and a serene lake view, Spinny Park provided the perfect setting for an unforgettable chess tournament. With the support of renowned chess hubs, the event provided an unforgettable experience for players of all skill levels. From seasoned veterans to aspiring newcomers, approximately 100 participants engaged in strategic matches throughout the day. The event not only provided a platform for players to compete but strengthened a sense of community and camaraderie among chess enthusiasts in Bengaluru.

Mr. Anshuman Karangi, City Head, Bengaluru “We are thrilled to have organized such an event in collaboration with chess.com and Bangalore Chess Club. The overwhelming response from participants makes us believe in the growing passion for chess in Bengaluru. We are committed to nurturing and making Spinny Parks as cultural hubs for each city, we are looking forward to hosting Bengaluraons to more events.

The event featured intense competition across various age groups, with participants showcasing their tactical acumen and strategic thinking in each match. As the day drew to a close, participants departed with fond memories of challenging matches, new friendships, and a heightened awareness of the increasing demand for used cars

Spread across 5 acres, Spinny Park sports an assortment of cars, including over 1000 Spinny Assured cars and Spinny Max pre-owned luxury cars. The exquisitely designed experiential hub is replete with in-venue test-drive zones, specially curated interactive dashboards, customer lounges, and community zones.

Spinny operates more than 55 car hubs across the country with a total parking capacity of close to 10,000 cars. In Bangalore, Spinny is already operating six car hubs with a total parking capacity of 1200 cars. With the addition of Spinny Park Bengaluru, the total capacity in the city will reach 2200 cars.

Bengaluru, 16th March 2024: AU Small Finance Bank (AU SFB), India’s largest SFB, today inaugurates its new branch at Sanjay Nagar, Bengaluru, which is the Bank’s 12th branch in Karnataka. This launch signifies AU SFB’s targeted offerings for the Bengaluru city and its commitment to delivering accessible and technology-driven financial services across South India. The inauguration was done by former Chief Minister of Karnataka D. V. Sadananda Gowda and senior officials of AU SFB.

The strong economy of Karnataka makes it a significant market offering high potential of deposits and credit. Bangalore alone contributes to around Rs 9 lakh crores of deposits of the state and remains a key city in AU SFB’s expansion plan in South India. Sanjay Nagar is an appealing strategic locality with well-planned infrastructure, luxury residential projects, high-class educational institutes, and healthcare facilities.

Speaking on the occasion, former Chief Minster of Karnataka, D. V. Sadananda Gowda said, “Bengaluru is an industrial hub that is contributing a great deal to the economy of our state as well as the nation. Over the years, AU Small Finance Bank has gained reputation of bringing customer centric banking solutions bundled with tech advancements. With this branch, I am sure the residents of Sanjay Nagar stand to benefit from that. As more and more industrial leaders as well as common man gain access to better banking, it will help add up to the prosperity of our state.”

Mr. Uttam Tibrewal, Executive Director, AU Small Finance Bank, said, “As a customer-centric bank, we strive to serve customers in Bengaluru with our unique proposition while fostering long-term relationships. To date, the positive response and trust from our tech-savvy clientele in Bengaluru have instilled confidence in us to extend our presence. At Sanjay Nagar branch, we aim for the customers to enjoy the advantages of our flagship features, such as monthly interest payout on savings accounts, extended banking hours, 24×7 video banking, vehicle loans, business banking, FDs/Green FDs, credit cards, construction funding to real estate developers, along with meticulously crafted wealth management products.”

As of December 2023, the Southern region has surpassed Rs 3,000 crore in the deposit book of AU SFB, instilling confidence of AU SFB to scale up its operations in South India. The bank aims to reach approximately 37 branches in South India by March 2024.

Bengaluru, March 15, 2024 – Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the leader in cloud security, announced another major leap forward in artificial intelligence (AI) innovations that extends the Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM data, from more than 400 billion daily Zscaler transactions with Avalor’s Data Fabric for Security with over 150 pre-built integrations enabling customers to proactively identify and predict critical vulnerabilities as well as improve operational efficiencies. By leveraging its massive data foundation, Zscaler is poised to transform the AI capabilities for the cybersecurity industry to not only enable organizations to mitigate risks and optimize performance but also pave the way for zero-touch operations.

The rapid advancement of AI will have pivotal impacts to the cybersecurity industry and to effectively combat AI-led threats, organizations must fully harness their currently isolated security data at massive scale. Zscaler’s 16 years of leadership operating the world’s largest cloud security platform has allowed it to leverage a massive data set to develop its pioneering AI-driven solutions, including Zscaler Risk360 and Zscaler Business Insights, which set a new benchmark for proactive cybersecurity and business intelligence.

“AI is only as good as the underlying data, and many solutions lack the additional context and knowledge from data sources across the enterprise to truly leverage security specific AI models,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler. “Zscaler operates the world’s largest security cloud with the most relevant data to train security specific large language models (LLMs) and with the Avalor acquisition, we can more effectively identify vulnerabilities, while predicting and preventing breaches.”

Avalor’s Data Fabric for Security ingests, normalizes, and unifies data across enterprise security and business systems to deliver actionable insights, analytics, and operational efficiencies. By expanding Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform with a security-centric data fabric, Zscaler enables enterprises to significantly enhance and fully automate AI-driven analytics and decision-making in real-time without the complexity of data aggregation and collection. Customers now have dynamic and customizable prioritization, streamlined reporting, zero-copy analytics, and real-time incident mitigation, as well as advanced threat detection, auto data discovery, classification, and policy generation, all within the Zscaler cloud security platform.

“We have long understood that being able to make sense of all the disparate security data sources in an organization is essential to understanding and improving risk posture, that’s why we delivered the industry’s first Data Fabric for Security to provide that aggregated platform,” said Raanan Raz, co-founder and CEO, Avalor. “The first application running on our Data Fabric is our Unified Vulnerability Management (UVM) module. By combining the Zscaler proprietary data sets with the 150 third-party sources Avalor supports, we will be in a prime position to enhance our UVM capabilities and create new applications with additional cyber protection insights.”

Bengaluru | March 14, 2024: KreditBee, India’s leading online credit solution providers, today announced the launch of its latest campaign, ‘Inspiring Inclusion: One Loan at a Time,’ for the International Women’s Day. This campaign showcases the brand’s commitment to foster financial independence and inclusivity among women, empowering them to overcome challenges and seize opportunities.

Many women face multiple socio-economic barriers in accessing credit making them underserved consumers. The ‘Inspiring Inclusion: One Loan at a Time’ campaign highlights KreditBee’s commitment to bridging credit gap and strengthening inclusive financial practices. In the last year alone, KreditBee enabled credit to over 7 lakh women (including new-to-credit consumers) across the nation by disbursing over INR 2,500 crores in loans. This underscores the company’s dedication to offering women the financial support they need, subsequently fostering economic empowerment and bridging the financial inclusion gap.

As part of the campaign, KreditBee invited 300 female customers to share personal stories of their journey overcoming financial hurdles with the help of the brand. These stories serve as a celebration of the women who have taken charge of their financial circumstance by the brand.

Ishan Bose, Chief Marketing Officer, KreditBee said, “Despite an uptick in the bank-accounts owned by women, awareness about credit solutions is still very low among women. As per TransUnion Cibil, only 6.3 crore out of the 45.4 crore women in India, are active borrowers. Through our campaign ‘Inspiring Inclusion: One Loan at a Time’, we want to highlight the gap in access to credit, and celebrate the women who chose to overcome it.”

The digital campaign includes online amplification of the ad and creatives across all social media platforms in metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 towns.

KreditBee currently offers diverse credit solutions like personal loans, online/offline checkout finance, and digitally-enabled secured loans, catering especially to new-to-credit customers, and further empowers them with insurance, credit score reports, and merchant-side offers.

BENGALURU, India – 14 March 2024. CrowdStrike today announced the winners of the annual Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) CrowdStrike Partner Awards at the CrowdStrike Partner Symposium in Bangkok, recognizing the exceptional work the partner ecosystem has performed over the year.

The awards celebrate the partner, growth partner, solutions integrator, technology alliance ecosystem partner, MSSP, and distributor of the year across Asia Pacific and Japan as well as regionally in Australia and New Zealand, India, Southeast and North Asia, and Japan. There are also individual awards for the best partner salesperson and best partner solution engineer.

The judging panel assessed the value the partner and individual have provided to mutual customers and CrowdStrike as a business over the course of the year in terms of transactions, enablement, and support.

A list of winners is below:
APJ

• Global SI Partner of the Year: APJ – BT
•  Technology Alliance Ecosystem Partner of the Year – Amazon Web Services
• APJ MSSP of the Year – UnThreats
• Distributor of the Year – PT. Virtus Technology Indonesi

ANZ

• Partner of the Year – Sekuro Operations Pty Ltd
• Growth Partner of the Year – CyberCX
• Best Partner Salesperson of the Year – Adele Buchanan, CSO Group
• Best Partner Solutions Engineer of the Year – Feng Zhang, Sekuro Operations Pty Ltd

India

•  Partner of the Year – ACPL Systems Pvt Ltd
• Growth Partner of the Year – DigitalTrack Solutions Private Limited
• Best Partner Salesperson of the Year – Vinod Kumar, Foresight Software Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Best Partner Solutions Engineer of the Year – Ramchandran R, Valuepoint TechSol Private Limited

Southeast and North Asia

•  Partner of the Year – Nexus Technologies Inc
• Growth Partner of the Year – Systex Information (H.K.) Ltd
•  Best Partner Salesperson of the Year – Ralph Adrian Espena, Trends & Technologies
•  Best Partner Solutions Engineer of the Year – Lim Eng Kiat, UnThreats

Japan

•  Partner of the Year – LAC Co. Ltd
• Growth Partner of the Year – ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation

Headquartered in the U.S. with global operations, CrowdStrike is one of the fastest growing and most innovative security companies in the world. CrowdStrike is fueling the era of AI-powered cybersecurity to keep customers ahead of rapidly evolving adversary tradecraft and stop breaches. The company’s market-defining CrowdStrike Falcon platform, elite incident response and services, and renowned cyber threat intelligence team have made CrowdStrike one of the most trusted brands in cybersecurity.

The CrowdStrike partner ecosystem is a key part of delivering on our mission of stopping breaches providing industry knowledge, market expertise, and access to organizations around the world.

Bengaluru, 14 March 2024: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) successfully concluded the ‘Great 4X4 Expedition’ in the highly significant North-east region, a remarkable event that seamlessly brought together the excitement of 4X4 driving and a strong connect with exclusive 4X4 community. The three-day event, held during 8-10th March 2024, engaged the enthusiastic 4X4 vehicle owners in an exhilarating experience amidst the picturesque landscapes of PRP Valley (Guwahati) and travel across some of the scenic locations in Meghalaya region. The flagship event began during May 2023, with a series of expeditions were conducted in South, West, North and East regions of India, through the year, gaining lot of popularity amongst the 4X4 fans. With this, Toyota’s primary focus has been to engage with the 4×4 fraternity and create awesome 4X4 experiences with the unique capabilities of varied SUVs from its product line-up.

Toyota, fuelled by its rich heritage of 4X4 product offerings, remains an influential source of inspiration. The brand consistently delivers a range of awesome products, earning the smiles of millions of customers across the country.

With the fleet of remarkable 4X4 SUVs including the iconic Hilux, the legendary LC300, the popular Fortuner and the Hyryder AWD (All Wheel Drive), the North-east expedition commenced at Vivanta Guwahati embarking on an impeccable journey through a delightful trail drive at PRP Valley, which is a tourism and adventure sports hub in the outskirts of Guwahati city, also known for modern art and serene beauty. This drive witnessed a line-up of Toyota’s 4X4 SUVs, renowned for their exceptional 4X4 capabilities and cutting-edge technology, exemplifying the unmatched performance and bringing more excitement to the overall drive experience with its unique product strengths and features. Notably, more than 80+ participants including family and friends came together with a plethora of both Toyota and other brand of SUVs during the ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota’.

Furthermore, at one of the landscapes in the celebrated destination of Meghalaya, the journey continued to offer an exceptional driving experience through the natural off-road tracks which included a range of challenging articulation, side-inclines to steep hill ascents & descends alongside rocky beds. The 4X4 experience was conducted under the expert supervision of 4X4 specialists, ensuring the participants enjoy the endeavour, while being safe & secure. These trail drives added an extra layer of awesomeness to the overall experiential drive, making it a day filled with fun, creating unforgettable memories. Needless to mention, the spirit of exhilaration amongst the 4X4 fans has brought much rejoice, leaving them wanting for more. In addition, the captivating expedition concluded with a delightful entertainment including cultural music and dance, performed by a popular artist, indulging in a joyous ambiance.

The culmination of the 4X4 drive also marked the environmental contributions with the handing over of the certificates to the participants for the trees that were planted on their behalf by an NGO (Sankalpataru), who will nurture such planted trees. The participants can observe the growth of their plant, by scanning the QR code provided to them.

On the conclusion of the Fifth ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota’, one of the 4X4 Participants excitedly, said, “Having traversed the breathtaking terrains of Guwahati & Meghalaya, the ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota’ has been nothing short of extraordinary. Toyota has once again surpassed expectations, offering an adventure that was both challenging and immensely fulfilling. The off-road tracks with natural obstacles, provided the perfect ground for us 4X4 enthusiasts to test our skills and our vehicles’ capabilities, which was conducted with utmost safety & proper supervision, providing an adrenaline-pumping adventure.

The camaraderie within the 4X4 community, the shared moments of overcoming off-roading challenges, and the collective appreciation for the great outdoors have enriched this experience beyond measure. Each activity, added layers of enjoyment to our adventure, creating memories that my family and I will always cherish. Toyota’s commitment to delivering remarkable experiences shines through in events like these, and it reinforces our trust and loyalty as a proud customer. Last but not the least, I am also happy to be a part of the virtual tree plantation – a Toyota driven eco initiative, with the support of an NGO Sankalpataru.”

On the successful completion of the North-east ‘Great 4X4 Expedition’, Mr. Sabari Manohar, Vice President – Sales-Service-Used Car Business of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said “We are elated with the admiration that the ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota’ has received from the 4X4 community. This endeavour embodies Toyota’s aim to connect and bring together the vibrant community of adventure enthusiasts, spreading ‘Mass Happiness’ through outdoor escapades by not only engaging with Toyota customers but also other SUV brands. Further, every participant contributed to the nature conservation through planting of saplings virtually via Sankalp Taru, an NGO. The positive response from participants fuels our enthusiasm, and we eagerly anticipate continuing these endeavours in the future, delivering meaningful adventures with our exemplary 4X4 SUVs.

As we celebrate the culmination of the North-East regional ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota,’ TKM extends heartfelt appreciation to all participants, supporters, and partners who played a pivotal role in this extraordinary 4X4 journey. We are confident that the series of ‘Great 4X4 Expedition by Toyota’ has ignited the shared passion for adventure in our customers, leaving them with enriching memories. Through this initiative, Toyota has garnered a multitude of lifelong 4X4 friends!”

Bengaluru, India, 13 March 2024: Josh, India’s leading short-video app, in collaboration with DW Hindi, the Hindi-language channel of German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, has announced the successful conclusion of the second season of ‘Vibecheck with DW’. This collaborative series introduced DW’s ‘Sehat Talk’, a women-centric news series, to a wider audience through short videos on Josh and Dailyhunt.

The introduction of ‘Sehat Talk’ programme on Josh and Dailyhunt marked a significant milestone in inclusive and women-centric media content for Bharat audiences. The second season, with a total of 45 videos which ran for 15 weeks on Josh and Dailyhunt, focused on an array of engaging and diverse topics including Seed Cycling, #Women trend awareness, “Whatsappitis,” and the intriguing connection between pain and cravings for sweets, among others.

With over 300 million video views, 10 million hearts and nearly 1 million shares and downloads on Josh, the enthusiastic response indicates the show’s remarkable reach and impact. Presented in Hindi and Indian Sign Language, the informative series is hosted by renowned journalist Isha Bhatia Sanan and an interpreter from the Inclusive Divyangjan Entrepreneur Association (IDEA). RedFM and its RJs also supported the series, emphasizing its importance to their listeners.

Commenting on this campaign, Sunder Venketraman, Head of Creator & Content Ecosystem at Josh, said, “’Vibecheck with DW’ has been an exceptional and impactful initiative since its inception. Our primary objective was to establish a safe and inclusive environment for women to engage in conversations about their health and related topics in the most inclusive manner possible. Through a comprehensive approach rooted in inclusivity, collaboration, and advocacy, we have not only achieved this goal but surpassed our objectives. Season 2’s success has been made possible by the collective efforts of the Vibecheck team, as well as our valued partners such as RedFM and IDEA.”

Daniel Schulz and Jaya Oberoi from Deutsche Welle’s Asia Distribution Team, jointly commented “The success of ‘Vibecheck with DW’ Season 2 reflects our commitment to delivering informative and captivating content to audiences in India. We are thrilled to see the positive reception and intend to continue to empower and educate through our collaboration with Josh and Dailyhunt, whose support has been crucial in amplifying our message and reaching diverse audiences.”

Season 2 of ‘Vibecheck with DW’ answers all the health-related “whys” that audiences may have. From understanding why anger fuels in an empty stomach to the intricacies of cancer development and the rationale between ageing and hair loss, the new season unravels the interconnected aspects of health and much more. The ‘Vibecheck with DW’ series can be viewed on DW Hindi’s channels on Josh and Dailyhunt.

Bengaluru 13 March 2024: Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) organized a Road Safety – Awareness Campaign with a special address themed ‘Road Safety – Managing Bengaluru’s Traffic Challenges Tech-Driven & Collaborative Approach’ by Mr. M N Anucheth, IPS, Joint Commissioner of Police (TRAFFIC), Bengaluru City. The event organized during National Safety Month 2024, highlighted the various measures taken by the Bengaluru traffic police to enhance traffic management, curb accidents, and bolster road safety across the city. Mr. M N Anucheth, in his address, urged BCIC to utilize its good offices to influence Bengaluru’s industrial sectors towards fostering a culture of road safety and incentivizing adherence to safety protocols while highlighting the pressing challenges faced by the city’s traffic infrastructure and the various solutions that the department is working on.

In his special address, Mr. M N Anucheth, IPS, Joint Commissioner of Police (TRAFFIC), Bengaluru City said “We are currently working on implementing advanced technologies such as AI, Big Data and IOT based solutions to optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion and enhance safety. Some of the major tech enhancements and initiatives that will be implemented or are under implementation are AI based adaptive signals to reduce delays at junctions to improve safety, AI enforcement, user friendly digital platforms to report violations and check traffic updates and collaboration with research and educational institutions for innovative solutions.”

“Our primary goal is to understand the dynamics of congestion – its causes, locations, and mitigation strategies. To achieve this, we’ve developed ASTraM (Actionable Intelligence for Sustainable Traffic Management), a system that harnesses data from diverse sources to monitor congestion patterns. By categorizing traffic flow into moderate, high, and severe, we can promptly respond to the situation. Certain junctions like Hebbal, witness severe congestion consistently; for instance, Hebbal witnesses a staggering 90,000 vehicles passing through in a three-hour window from 9:00 am to 12 noon, likely one of the highest globally. Leveraging our advancements, we can now disseminate real-time road conditions via map-based services, FM radio, and social media platforms to mitigate traffic congestion,” Mr. M N Anucheth added.

Dr. S Devarajan, President-BCIC said “The significant improvement in the city’s traffic as a result of several initiatives undertaken by the Bengaluru Police is commendable, and BCIC is fully supportive of the traffic police across all fronts. BCIC is committed to partnering with all our members to enhance last-mile connectivity, thereby promoting the usage of metro services among employees, an effort that could result in reduced vehicular presence on the roads.”

“The ever-increasing traffic congestion in Bengaluru is posing a great challenge to the traffic management system in the city. Bengaluru currently has the largest number of privately owned vehicles for any city in India. Today, Bengaluru has a population of 14 million people, with a traffic density of 827 vehicles per 1000, which is the highest for any Indian city. The vehicle to population ratio is 1:1 and it is growing exponentially. This year Bengaluru witnessed 429 fatal accidents out of which 10% of the total fatalities were at Devanahalli due to the high speeds on the elevated corridor, this is followed by Kengeri due to the NICE road. Last year, among the 914 fatalities, 74% were riders of two-wheelers, while 21% were pedestrians. Alarmingly, 60% of those affected were aged 60 or above” Mr. M N Anucheth explained.

During the interactive session, BCIC members shared their thoughts and concerns about traffic in the city. They gave suggestions and talked about problems and offered viable solutions.

BENGALURU, India, March 13, 2024 – Cisco, a global leader in technology, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka Innovation Technology Society (KITS), Department of Electronics, IT, Bt, Government of Karnataka, to train 40,000 individuals in cybersecurity skills and cyber awareness. Women will represent half of the trained workforce to help meet the growing need for cyber talent as organizations look to bolster defences against an evolving and complex threat landscape.

According to Cisco’s Cybersecurity Readiness Index, 90% of organizations in India expect a cybersecurity incident to disrupt their businesses in the next 12 to 24 months. Moreover, as stated by an Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) report, with 40% of cybersecurity teams in Indian organizations understaffed, the urgency for skill preparedness is clear. This collaboration underscores a collective commitment to equip students with job-ready cybersecurity skills required to meet the ever-growing security demands of tomorrow.

Moreover, the collaboration will include a ‘Train the Trainers’ program to empower college faculties with the knowledge and skills required to create a robust cyber ecosystem. This program will also focus on promoting cyber awareness among citizens to bolster their defences and empower them to be safer and more secure online.

“As the digital-first world evolves, placing cybersecurity at the forefront, the imperative to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to identify and respond to cyber threats has become increasingly crucial. Our collaboration with the Karnataka Innovation Technology Society and the Government of Karnataka Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity underscores our commitment to empowering disadvantaged sections of society, including students, teachers, and senior citizens, with critical cybersecurity skills and awareness to protect against threats and be safer online. As we navigate the new world, we remain steadfast in our mission to enable individuals to defend digital domains and create a secure and sustainable future for all.’’ said Harish Krishnan, Managing Director and Chief Policy Officer, Cisco India & SAARC.

Additionally, Cisco will collaborate with the Government of Karnataka Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity, to promote cybersecurity awareness and skill-building among students and professionals. Cisco will contribute to curriculum development by providing cybersecurity courses through Cisco Networking Academy – one of the world’s longest-running IT skills-to-jobs programs – and conduct webinar sessions and knowledge workshops for students, covering a diverse range of courses, from foundational to advanced levels.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Ekroop Caur, IAS, Department of Electronics, IT, Bt, Government of Karnataka said, “The need for a cyber-resilient workforce is integral. We look forward to working with Cisco, to empower young professionals across the state with essential skills and job-ready capabilities to safeguard themselves and organisations from risks in an increasingly digital-driven world. Through this engagement, we will be imparting cybersecurity skilling for 40,000 individuals, aiming for 50% of the beneficiaries to be women.’’

These strategic partnerships represent a significant step forward in Cisco’s mission to help bridge the gaps in digital skills and prepare India’s workforce for the jobs of the future.

Bengaluru, 13th March 2024: Today Amadeus announces the acquisition of Voxel, a leading provider of electronic invoice and B2B payment solutions for travel sellers, hotels, and other travel players. This will support Amadeus’ vision to deliver a smooth travel payment experience. It will also complement Amadeus’ payments business, Outpayce, by enhancing its existing travel sellers’ product suite, while expanding in the hospitality segment.

The addition of Voxel solutions to Amadeus’ existing offering means access to a wider range of payments services for travel sellers and a more automated electronic way to manage invoices for tour operators, TMCs, hotel aggregators, and hotels. The acquisition of Voxel will also help Amadeus better serve its corporate customers by further automating the business travel experience, from reservation and payments to expense management. Thanks to this integrated technology, Amadeus will continue to better connect the travel industry and reduce manual processes for a smooth experience.

Decius Valmorbida, President, Travel, Amadeus, comments: “The acquisition of Voxel brings a complementary portfolio of solutions to enrich Amadeus’ end-to-end offering, leveraging smart technology in order to benefit the wider travel eco-system and industry. Payments are present at every stage of the travel experience. To make the experience of travel better, it’s crucial we ensure smooth, integrated and even invisible payments. We now have a combined team of experts who are passionate about payments, and a breadth of customers who will now be able to leverage the power of Voxel and Amadeus together. This is yet another example of how Amadeus makes travel work better for everyone, everywhere.”

Àngel Garrido, CEO, Voxel, adds: “Amadeus is truly at the heart of the travel industry, and we couldn’t be more excited to now be part of the team. Amadeus is global in nature, with travel and technology experts working towards a better door-to-door and connected journey. These attributes, combined with Amadeus’ deep roots in travel, have resulted in a unique opportunity for Voxel and Amadeus to grow faster, and further embed innovative and automated technology; improving not only the processes for travel sellers but also travel providers. The combination of our technology, teams, strong cultural fit, and our connections will no doubt bring us one step closer to smoother travel payments.”

David Doctor, CEO, Outpayce, says: “Since the inception of Outpayce, Amadeus’ payments business, the focus has been to strengthen the current end-to-end offering as well as develop an integrated payment ecosystem to which travel companies can connect and access the latest fintech innovations. The acquisition of Voxel allows us to do both. I’m very proud to mark another milestone in our journey to deliver frictionless travel payments. I look forward to working closely with the Voxel team.”

Voxel is an e-invoicing and B2B electronic payments specialist. Voxel’s Bavel Platform orchestrates an end-to-end electronic payment process. 50,000+ hotels, 1,000+ tour operators and travel companies, and 3,000+ restaurants and franchises, across 100 countries, currently benefit from the platform. The platform is made up of Bavel Pay, Bavel Billing, and Bavel Procurement, and handles more than 100 million transactions per year.

Voxel, a privately-owned company, was founded in 1998, and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The acquisition, which is now closed, sees over 200 Voxel employees join Amadeus.