Honoring the founder and CEO of steAm, Inc., jazz pianist, mathematician and Expo 2025 Thematic Project Producer who will partner with Clé de Peau Beauté to inspire the next generation of girls through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).
TOKYO, Oct. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Clé de Peau Beauté, the luxury skincare and makeup brand, is honored to announce Sachiko Nakajima as the recipient of the Power of Radiance Awards 2025 for her tireless efforts in advancing STEAM education. Ms. Nakajima first made her mark in STEAM as the first Japanese woman to win a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad during high school. A jazz pianist, she also leads Kurage Band Vida: Concerto of Five Senses – a group of musicians bringing STEAM to life through the five senses. Her experiences in STEAM led her to found steAm, Inc. in 2017, an organization dedicated to providing STEAM education and unlocking the creative potential in everyone.

The annual Power of Radiance Awards recognizes and celebrates women who are taking action by advocating for girls’ education in their communities. The Awards were founded in 2019, and are based on Clé de Peau Beauté’s belief that the key to a better world lies in unlocking the potential of girls especially through STEAM education.
Ms. Nakajima’s work embodies this belief, and is perfectly aligned with Clé de Peau Beauté’s mission to empower girls through education and ultimately close the persistent gender gap in STEAM, fostering a better future for all. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 ranks Japan 118th out of 146 countries in gender equality, underscoring significant disparities in fields like STEM[1]. Despite Japan’s position as one of the world’s largest economies and Japanese girls’ outstanding performance in math and science globally[2], only 16% of STEM graduates in Japan are women[3]. Ms. Nakajima’s efforts aim to address this disparity through dismantling the barriers that have traditionally prevented women and girls from pursuing STEM education and careers.
Through the Power of Radiance Awards, Clé de Peau Beauté envisions building a global community of women leading the charge for positive change. Ms. Nakajima met Reshma Saujani, the Power of Radiance 2024 Award Recipient and Founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First, at an event held by Clé de Peau Beauté celebrating the International Day of the Girl in New York. During the event, Ms. Saujani and other gender equality advocates shared ideas on how women can support one another to empower the next generation of girls in STEAM. As the Power of Radiance 2025 Award Recipient, Ms. Nakajima will continue the efforts and legacy of the awardees before her, including Ms. Saujani, by bringing these global insights to her work in Japan.
As the recipient of the Power of Radiance Awards 2025, Ms. Nakajima will receive a grant that will bolster her efforts and extend the impact of her work and mission to inspire girls and women to spur on their interest in STEAM fields.
This includes her engagement with The Asia Foundation, where she is working on the “STEM ConnectHER” project. This initiative aims to build a regional network of women in STEM fields across the Asia-Pacific region, providing mentorship and support to university students and professionals.  Additionally, Ms. Nakajima is actively engaged with “Suri-Joshi,” a program that organizes workshops and creates online content to encourage girls and their mothers to explore the joys of mathematics. The initiative aims to break down stereotypes and make math more accessible and enjoyable for young women, particularly in regions where female role models in STEM are scarce.
Ms. Nakajima is also participating in activities at Expo 2025, where she serves as a Thematic Project Producer for the Playground of Life: Jellyfish Pavilion. Drawing from her multidisciplinary expertise and strong belief in the power of individual involvement to effect change, she will create a collaborative and inclusive space where people can experience the fun and joy of life together through learning, art and more.
“It is an honor to receive Clé de Peau Beauté’s Power of Radiance Award, which has been instrumental in empowering the next generation of girls and addressing the gender disparity in STEAM education around the world. Both education and careers in these fields are male-dominated, but gender has no bearing on creativity and innovation. Through the awards, I look forward to working with Clé de Peau Beauté to rewrite the narrative that STEAM isn’t for girls and women. I believe gender equality and all forms of inclusivity in STEAM is not only beneficial, but vital, for a progressive society,” said Ms. Nakajima.
“Since 2019, the Power of Radiance Awards have been a core pillar of our philanthropic commitment, honoring women leading positive change around the world through education. We are delighted to deepen our dedication to gender equality and empowering girls in the year ahead through our collaboration with Ms. Nakajima and steAm, Inc.,” said Ms. Mizuki Hashimoto, Chief Brand Officer of Clé de Peau Beauté.
Clé de Peau Beauté believes that every individual possesses the potential to tap into their inner radiance to effect positive change. This is why the brand has selected one of its most iconic first-step products, The Serum, and pledged a share of its sales towards this mission. Through its Power of Radiance Awards, Clé de Peau Beauté endeavors to empower girls and women to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.
About Sachiko Nakajima
Sachiko Nakajima is a musician, mathematician, STEAM educator and media artist. She is the founder and CEO of steAm, Inc., a representative director at the steAm BAND Association, and a Thematic Project Producer at Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, Japan (Signature Pavilion ” Playground of Life: Jellyfish Pavilion”).  Actively involved in music, mathematics, STEAM education, and media art within Japan and internationally, she believes that everyone possesses potential for creativity, regardless of their background, gender or age. She sees playful STEAM education as being able to help individuals overcome social and personal challenges, nurturing their unique interests and creativity to shape the society of the future. In Japan, Ms. Nakajima was appointed as STEM Girls Ambassador for the Cabinet Office; she also served as a member of various committees of the Ministries of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and various regional governments; and she was a Fulbright scholar at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Notably, she holds the distinct honor of being the first Japanese woman to win a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. She is also mother to an 18-year-old girl.
About Clé de Peau Beauté
Clé de Peau Beauté, the global luxury brand from Shiseido Co Ltd, was founded in 1982 as the ultimate expression of elegance and science. Clé de Peau Beauté means the key to skin’s beauty. The philosophy of the brand is to unlock the power of radiance by harnessing makeup technologies and advanced skincare from around the world. Forever guided by an exquisite aesthetic sensibility and intelligence, Clé de Peau Beauté has instilled its products with modernity, enchantment, and dynamism to emerge as an industry leader in delivering radiance so remarkable, it emanates from within. Available in 26 countries and regions worldwide.
Clé de Peau Beauté Official Website:  https://www.cledepeau-beaute.com/int/powerofradiance-2025.html 
Clé de Peau Beauté Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cledepeaubeaute/ 
[1] Global Gender Gap Report 2024 https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/in-full/benchmarking-gender-gaps-2024-2e5f5cd886/ 
[2] How Japan is encouraging more women into STEM https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/07/japan-encouraging-women-into-stem/#:~:text=Japan%20ranks%20last%20among%20wealthy,science%2C%20according%20to%20the%20OECD
[3] How Japan is encouraging more women into STEM https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/07/japan-encouraging-women-into-stem/
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An exclusive investment network founded by tech alumni in Southeast Asia expands to support and fuel the vibrant African startup ecosystem.
SINGAPORE, Oct. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — XA Network, a leading investment network founded by tech alumni in Southeast Asia, today announced its expansion into Africa with the launch of XA Africa. The move underscores the network’s vision and commitment to fostering innovation and supporting promising startups globally.

XA Africa is founded by a trio of experienced tech professionals:
Nitin Gajria, former MD of Google Sub-Saharan AfricaJason Scott, venture capitalist and an architect of the Black Founders Fund at GoogleMarek Dawidowicz, current Marketing Director at YouTube and South African native”Founders of technology startups in Africa are uniquely placed to solve some of Africa’s most profound challenges and unlock its greatest opportunities. We see the foray of XA Network into Africa as a natural progression, allowing us to connect amazing founders to experienced and expert operators from the tech industry”, says Nitin Gajria, Co-Founder of XA Africa.
XA Africa aims to connect exceptional African tech founders with seasoned investors and industry experts, primarily from global and regional technology companies, to provide not just capital but also the guidance and support needed to scale their ventures. The newly established XA Africa has already made notable investments in promising African startups, including:
Crop2Cash (Nigeria)BuuPass (Kenya)Kaya (South Africa)Talamus Health (Ghana)”We are excited to have XA network on board because of their strong network of experts who are open to listening and helping. They’ve introduced us to advisors from Expedia and truly understand the dynamics of emerging markets, making them a valuable investor.” – Sonia Kabra & Wyclife Omondi – Founders of BuuPass
“Partnering with XA Network has been a game-changer for our company. Their strategic guidance and network have opened doors to new opportunities, and we’re excited to see the impact of our collaboration continue to unfold. We’re grateful for their trust in our vision.” – Michael Ogundare – CEO of Crop2Cash
Since its inception six years ago, XA Network has established itself as a significant player in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, making nearly 100 investments in the region, and consistent ranked as #1 investment network in the region. XA Network comprises senior leaders from prominent global and regional technology companies and notable company founders. This approach distinguishes XA Network, enabling it to offer portfolio companies unparalleled guidance and support from experienced industry operators.
We also see an opportunity to build a stronger bridge between ecosystems in Africa and Southeast Asia along the way. In fact, this investment hypothesis has already been proven across some of the African founders we are currently supporting.”, Mr Gajria added.
The XA Africa team will be hosting their first public Demo Day webinar on Thursday November 7, 1-2pm GMT+1, where Africa focused investors can meet and invest in four founding companies and learn more about XA Africa. Click here to register for the event.
For more information, please visit https://xanetwork.co/
For media queries, please contact: Carmelita Lumempouw-Didoné[email protected]
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MAS-licensed Arta Finance launches in Singapore and internationallyArta announces partnerships with Wio Invest for its Wealth-as-a-service offering for banks and financial institutions globallyArta unveils Arta AI Copilot – a number of AI-enhanced experiences on its wealth platformArta welcomes Ralph Hamers as external advisorSINGAPORE, Oct. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Fast-growing digital wealth management platform Arta Finance today launched globally. Arta’s platform is now open to accredited investors in Singapore and to international investors open to managing their wealth in Singapore – a global wealth hub where an expected 1.6 million offshore investors are expected to manage $4.8 trillion in assets by 2028. The international launch follows Arta’s successful debut in the US in October 2023.

Arta today also took a major step on its B2B journey with the announcement that Abu Dhabi’s Wio Invest would be the first of many to integrate the Arta wealth-as-a-service platform into their digital platform, to create a new wealth management offering for its clients in the Middle East, pending regulatory approval. Wio Invest, a forward-thinking Middle Eastern fintech, is regulated by the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and backed by Abu Dhabi Development Company (ADQ), a prominent institution.
Arta’s wealth platform offers a curated deal flow that includes private investments from exclusive fund managers, intelligent public market strategies, and innovative structured products, without the sales pressure, opaque pricing and manual processes found in many other financial institutions.
Commenting on the international launch, Arta CEO Caesar Sengupta said: “Arta is at the intersection of some powerful trends, including the personalisation and democratisation of wealth management, the huge growth and opportunity in private market investing, and the use of AI to create capabilities that have previously only been the preserve of the ultra-wealthy. We are now taking a major leap forward with our international launch and can’t wait to bring the Arta wealth platform and AI Copilot to the global community in the months and years ahead.”
The ‘wealth-as-a-service’ platform for banks and financial institutions is a new B2B offering by Arta. It was done with support from the venture building team of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which worked closely with Arta to incubate this offering during the early stages of the concept. This cloud-based platform empowers partner banks to serve their clients better and meet evolving demands with faster time-to-market for innovative wealth management products, services, and technology. Banks can choose from integrating Arta AI Copilot capabilities, to embedding Arta’s investment solutions into their platforms, to fully white-labelling the Arta platform — enhancing their digital capabilities and unlocking growth in new wealth segments.
To help integrate a cloud and AI-native wealth platform into legacy systems at partner banks, Arta is also announcing partnerships with leading cloud provider Google Cloud and global management and technology consultancy Capco to provide solutions for banks looking to adopt Arta’s technology.
Amanda Ong, Head of International Expansion commented: “The launch of the B2B business is an extension of Arta’s mission, enabling us to partner with banks and financial institutions in a way that is wholly complementary to their current offering. We are proud to welcome Wio as our launch partner and look forward to growing together.”
AI drives leap in wealth tech
Arta also launched the first-of-its-kind AI Copilot, purpose-built for wealth management and finance. This patent-pending technology empowers Arta’s members to make smarter investment decisions – ideate, analyse, and monitor their portfolios with the tools and insights that usually require large teams of relationship managers, private bankers, and investment analysts.
Unlike commonly available AI chatbots or apps, Arta’s AI systems are purpose-built for applications in wealth and finance and exploit the reasoning capabilities of the latest large language models. Arta’s AI stack employs several models that work in conjunction with each other – including commercially available closed source models, fine-tuned open source LLMs and several custom built AI/ML models created by Arta’s researchers. These models have access to high-quality public and proprietary data including large financial and risk data sets for training and inference. This enables Arta to combine the fluency of LLMs with the time sensitivity, hard mathematical rigour and explainability necessary for investment and financial applications. Its AI stack, like the rest of Arta’s infrastructure, is highly privacy-preserving and uses encryption at rest and in transit for all user data.
Singapore Minister of State for Trade and Industry and MAS board member, Alvin Tan was on hand to help launch Arta in the City State, alongside investors, fund managers, partners, and clients. The company has established key functions in Singapore including engineering, marketing, product, design and operations and a number of its global leads including its CEO are based in Singapore.
Arta welcomes Ralph Hamers as external advisor
Arta also today welcomes Ralph Hamers as an external senior advisor, providing strategic guidance as the company grows internationally. Ralph Hamers is an advisor to established and new players in the global financial sector. He developed a special knowledge in digitalisation of processes and client offerings. Hamers previously was CEO with UBS and ING
Commenting on his role as senior advisor to Arta, Mr Hamers said:
“A central focus of my leadership has been to take legacy businesses and digitalise, integrating front-to-back technology to drive efficiencies and make the lives of clients and colleagues easier. This often needs major and multi-year transformations in well-established organisations. With Arta, I see the enormous opportunity of having incredibly smart people from the worlds of technology and finance coming together to build a platform that is more than ready to take its place amongst the world’s leading wealth managers.”
Mr. Hamers becomes part of a distinguished group of early investors in Arta, which includes more than 140 technology and finance leaders, such as ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach.
The Arta wealth platform is now available globally to all accredited investors on desktop and mobile. Early members will get their first investment up to $100K managed free for life by Arta (terms and conditions apply). To learn more about Arta, please visit artafinance.com.
Important DisclosuresArta Wealth Management Pte. Ltd. (“Arta Finance”) is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) whose products and services are only available to Accredited Investors.
Investing in securities involves risk, and there is always the potential of losing money. Certain investments are not suitable for all investors. The content provided herein is for informational purposes only and is not investment or financial advice, tax or legal advice, an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell or hold securities or investment products. This material has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. For additional disclosures related to Arta Finance, please visit https://artafinance.com/sg/disclosures.
About Arta Finance:Founded by ex-Google executives, Arta Finance is a digital wealth platform for the savvy that enables more people to access the “financial superpowers” of the ultra-wealthy. The platform provides access to private market investments from elite fund managers, intelligent public market strategies and structured products, and sophisticated financial services such as insurance and estate planning. Headquartered in the US and Singapore, Arta serves its members directly as well as empowering partner financial institutions to expand wealth management to new clients. Arta is backed by Peak XV, Ribbit Capital, Coatue, EDBI, and over 140 luminaries in tech and finance.
Learn more at artafinance.com
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