Osome, a leading finance admin platform for founders and small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced it has concluded its Series B funding round with over US$17 million in capital in a mix of equity and debt, from new and existing investors. Osome has seen commercial growth, serving over 13,000 small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers and employing over 400 staff across Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, the UK, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Malaysia. It helped over 2,500 new businesses go to market in 2023 alone.
The company has grown its 2023 revenues while decreasing its burn rate, charting a clear path towards profitability. The surge of new Osome customers underscores the market’s increasing recognition of Osome’s innovative solutions in streamlining accounting, financial compliance, and other repetitive business tasks that can be automated in the next wave of innovation.
With new funding and a clearer path to sustainable growth and profitability in 2024, Osome will double down on its founding mission of providing innovative solutions that address the core financial challenges faced by modern businesses. It continues to invest in its product offerings, further emphasising the acceleration of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) components to serve its expanding customer base more efficiently. It also helps Osome invest in marketing and customer service and accelerate its go-to-market efforts.
Victor Lysenko, CEO and Co-founder of Osome, sees the current economic landscape with fewer openings and record layoff numbers as a catalyst for entrepreneurship. He said: “Osome was founded to support and champion the needs of entrepreneurs, to help them see their ideas come to life. Asia’s seeing a funding winter, with companies carrying out mass layoff exercises and a much more challenging job environment. This means we’re seeing a record number of individuals turning to entrepreneurship. Osome truly believes the current downturn has catalysed more founders and entrepreneurs to realise their dreams of running their own businesses, and that’s what we are here for.”
Konstantin Lange, COO and Co-founder of Osome, said: “2023 has been a challenging year; it was not without its growth pains. We saw a period where customer revenue was growing faster and faster, which forced us to realign ourselves as an organisation to deliver positive experiences to our client partners. All things considered, we’re pleased to have emerged from the year bigger, stronger, and better, with a renewed push towards profitability and sustainability. We could not have done this without the trust and support of our customers, team members, and investors who view Osome as a trusted partner to help them grow their businesses.”
Anton Roslov, the Chief Technology Officer and Founder, said: “Artificial intelligence will increase the customer experience and accelerate automation and integration of Osome’s services in line with Osome’s vision to become entrepreneurs’ leading financial operating system. Osome’s next growth stage is focused on profitability and operational excellence while continuing to provide high-quality services and innovation to its clients.”
Joerg Ruetschi, the change and growth specialist who joins the company as President & Chief Transformation Officer to lead the agenda and roadmap to profitability, said: “As Osome continues to evolve and expand its reach, the company remains committed to its founding principle: making business operations effortless for entrepreneurs worldwide. With a strong foundation and a clear vision for the future, Osome is set to redefine the standards of financial technology services for SMBs across the globe.”
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Museums hold the power to freeze time. Wandering through these tributes to the past, visitors are transported across history, from imagining the lives of our prehistoric ancestors and marvelling at the vibrant creativity of contemporary artists, to anticipating the innovations of the future.
While museums like the Louvre Museum, the Palace Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art continue to draw significant interest from global travellers, this International Museum Day on 18 May, Trip.com – a leading one-stop travel service provider – unveils some of the major current trends that museums are shaping around the world.
Rising museum trends: Innovative installations and use of technology
Increasingly, museums are using innovative installations and technology in their exhibitions to elevate the visitor experience, and blend the past and the future in a dynamic way.
The monumental installations that have been conceived as part of the Guardians of Time exhibition  at the Guimet Museum in Paris, sponsored by Trip.com, provide a brand new iteration of Chinese culture and mythology by bringing together art and technology. From April 2024 to February 2025, works by Chinese artist Jiang Qiong Er take over several emblematic spaces of the museum, including its façade and its ancient Asian art collections, creating a captivating journey and a visionary reflection on time.
This exhibition takes place during the China-France Year of Cultural Tourism. Furthermore, as global tourists flow into Paris for the upcoming Summer Olympics, the exhibition will offer a unique experience for them to get a deep dive into the resonance and convergence of different cultures.
The façade of the museum building is a contemporary reinterpretation of the Chinese grottoes of Mogao, Yungang, and Longmen through the installation Origin. Twelve mythical creatures conceptualised with the help of artificial intelligence stand guard on the windows and at the top of the main entrance. Each of them celebrates the Year of the Dragon, and represents core philosophical and humanistic values such as peace, inclusion, and care for nature.
A gigantic net is suspended above the museum rooftop in the Her Voice – Bravery installation, where the stories collected from 60 diasporic Chinese women are embroidered using a new “women’s script” inspired by nv shu, the now extinct secret female script developed by peasant women in Hunan, China over 3,000 years ago. The poetic words of these women tell of their life experience, aspirations, agonies, and courage.
Digital developments are further helping museums around the world to reach a broader audience. Age-old museums take on a new life with virtual and augmented reality experiences, digital access, and streamlined booking procedures.
As one of the top attractions for international travellers to China, the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi’an offers a VR film to complement the visitor experience. Sitting in a 360° rotating chair with a VR headset, visitors can witness the terracotta warriors come back to life and exercise their might on the battlefield to found the first centralised dynasty in ancient China.
The museum collaborated with Trip.com recently to launch a platform for integrated overseas service, which includes allowing visitors to access a mini digital museum to learn about its renowned collection even before the trip and offering more convenient online booking and payment options for inbound travellers.
Trip.com is leveraging its global user network and leading product capacity to open up new avenues for museum partners to engage and welcome knowledge seekers far and near, unlocking fresh opportunities as these museums leap into the future.
A museum for tomorrow: Looking to the past for a sustainable future
Responding to the pressing environmental challenges faced by our planet and our society, museums are using immersive exhibits, interactive displays, and state-of-the-art installations to engage visitors in thought-provoking conversations about our relationship with the natural world.
From 27 January to 23 June, the National Museum of Singapore is holding a special exhibition “Plastic: Remaking Our World” to chart the material’s meteoric rise in the 20th century, its environmental impact, and cutting-edge solutions for a more sustainable way of using plastics. An immersive film installation contrasts the long-term formation of oil with the rapid generation of plastic waste, whereas an interactive space recreates a home full of objects to illustrate the pervasiveness of plastics in our daily lives.
Meanwhile, “Story of the Forest”, one of the museum’s permanent exhibitions, takes visitors on a tour across the virtual and visual landscape of Singaporean history through the stunning 3D display created by the renowned Japanese digital art collective teamLab. Inspired by the museum’s treasured William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, the exhibition invites visitors to interact with the animated wildlife of the Malay Peninsula in the nineteenth century up close.
With its rapidly expanding tour and ticket offerings around the globe, Trip.com is dedicated to connecting travellers with captivating exhibits, engaging programmes, and the opportunity to discover the world’s cultural heritage. Whether it’s exploring ancient civilisations, marvelling at masterpieces, or listening to new voices, Trip.com actively works with museum partners around the globe to expand their reach and keep memories alive for generations to come.
The post From Ancient Marvels to Modern Innovations: Trip.com Spotlights Current Museum Trends for International Museum Day appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

 
Brinc, a global leader in corporate innovation and venture acceleration, has acquired Callmi, a MENA-centric mentorship platform that offers real-time, one-on-one video consultations with top-tier experts, including C-suite executives and industry thought leaders including Jad Halaoui, Co-founder and COO at Washmen, Nelio Leone, founding team of Careem (MENA’s first unicorn), and Siddiq Faird, Smart Crowd Founder and Director.
The platform will be integrated into Brinc’s founder pathways to offer specialized mentorship to Brinc Academy alumni and participants in Brinc’s sector-specific accelerator programs, further enhancing support for entrepreneurs within its ecosystem.
As a firm, Callmi is deeply committed to their philosophy of giving back. Embedded in its mentorship model, an impressive 40 percent of Callmi mentors commit to donating proceeds they earn on Callmi to charities of their choice, a practice that Brinc fully supports and is dedicated to upholding.
Brinc and Callmi will donate 100 percent of its fees earned from the first 100 calls in May to the Red Crescent, Dubai Center for Special Needs, and Abu Dhabi Mangroves charities. This approach aids various philanthropic causes while allowing both mentors and mentees to make a positive societal impact from their very first interaction.
Through this acquisition, Brinc is set to further establish its support for the immediate needs of entrepreneurs in the rapidly growing MENA region, while also connecting innovators across the globe. Brinc will continue to invest into the Callmi product development to include calendar syncing, multi-user sessions, and multi-language support to better serve a diverse global audience. Brinc intends to maintain rigorous standards for Callmi, ensuring high-quality consultations through strict vetting of mentors, ongoing monitoring of consultation quality, and user feedback mechanisms.
Manav Gupta, CEO & founder of Brinc, stated, “This acquisition is not just a strategic step towards enhancing our global footprint, but also a reaffirmation of our commitment to the MENA region. Integrating Callmi into our suite of services enriches our offerings with its innovative solutions and deep local insights. We’re excited about how Callmi will help us empower entrepreneurs in the MENA region, driving the development of industry leaders who are well-versed in both local and global markets.”
Looking ahead, Brinc envisions significant growth and an extended reach, leveraging Callmi’s features and the planned expansions to enhance accessibility and scalability. Democratizing access to expert knowledge, this marks a crucial milestone for Brinc in its mission to empower entrepreneurs and professionals within the MENA region. This year, the Callmi team plans to expand their operations to Brinc’s existing markets followed by introducing new ways for founders to engage with experts online (group mentoring, interactive workshops, etc.) as well as offline (mentor meetups, in-person events, etc).
Brinc highly encourages founders to take advantage of an exclusive sign-up offer currently available. For those interested in mentoring, now is the perfect time to join Brinc’s growing community of industry leaders and experts.
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