License to lend

• KrediFazz, a subsidiary of 500-backed FinAccel, has become a fully licensed peer-to-peer lending fintech startup.
• Moving forward, KrediFazz can embark on its mission to offer safe, convenient, and affordable credit access for communities in Indonesia. Its services are especially targeted to those who have very limited access to banking services.
• The startup also aims to promote financial literacy to the public. According to the statement, as demand for fintech services grows over the pandemic, it sees the urgency of financial education to help people avoid the traps of using illegal fintech services.
• “We hope that KrediFazz can be the right solution for people who need access to credit and can provide benefits in managing cash flow for individuals and micro, small and medium enterprises,” said CEO Alie Tan.
• Read the full statement here.

A hiring hand

• Companies can now fully automate their hiring process, thanks to a partnership between 500-backed Talkpush and Emmersion, a language ability assessment firm.
• AutoFlow, Talkpush’s automation engine, uses the writing and speaking proficiency scores generated by Emmersion to fast-track candidates to the next step in the recruitment process, automatically scheduling them for the final remote interview.
• According to the statement, the integration enables the validation of critical language skills essential in customer-facing hires. This accelerates the selection and onboarding process.
• “We’re thrilled to partner with Emmersion, who has taken the art of automated language assessment to the next level, and share our global ambitions, having developed strong language capabilities in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, and more,” said Max Armbruster, CEO of Talkpush.
• Read the full statement here.

Robots on the rise

• Not all experts in the robotics industry think that human robots are the future. In an interview, Tra Vu, chief operating officer of 500-backed OhmniLabs, shared that a human-shaped robot is costly and has a diminishing return on investment.
• “The higher degree of freedom required to make functional humanoids like Pepper and Asimo (both retired at this point) means they are also harder to program, more difficult to implement, and more susceptible to failures,” she said.
• She believes that robots should replace dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks. “Similar to the introduction of computers, progress in robotics development also enables and facilitates new jobs for which humans are better suited,” she said. “Robots will essentially allow us to concentrate and perform more skilled and creative tasks.”
• Read the full interview on Lifewire here.