Renowned Intelligent Speech and Artificial Intelligence Public Listed Company, iFLYTEK Enters a Memorandum of Understanding With Enterprise Singapore�s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) Partner, XNode, to Enter and Expand in Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With a market capitalization of US$19 billion, the publicly listed iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with XNode on Tuesday, 26 October 2021 at Pan Pacific Singapore during the iFLYTEK 1024 Global Developer Festival, organised by XNode Singapore and supported by the Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance. The MOU details XNode�s support to facilitate iFLYTEK’s entry and expansion into South-East Asia markets.

According to Clara Chen, General Manager of XNode Singapore, “Having built global companies from this city state for the last seventeen years has taught me a few things:

• Because startups are launched here to be global from the get-go; Singaporeans instinctively cater to varying economic developments and diverse cultures in building companies,
• Localisation of the same product offerings, be it in China, India or Indonesia, is not just about translation, but about context, culture, brand perception, and geopolitical and market realities, and
• Trying to conquer ASEAN alone is harder than trying to expand into large homogenous economies like China or the US”.

“On the other hand, China’s tech giants have a huge domestic market and the drive to put themselves on an international stage. In this regard, Singapore’s Internationalisation know-how could hugely benefit innovative Chinese companies and open new frontiers together with them.”

iFLYTEK’s visions of enabling machines to listen and speak, and understand and think is all to create a better world with artificial intelligence. The company creates value by easing the burden on teachers and students in schools through teaching students according to their aptitudes. And in healthcare, by providing better, faster responses to medical emergencies.

The simulcast festival had earlier called for entries for its themed challenge, aptly titled “A.I. for Intelligent Lifestyle Challenge”. More than 9,000 applications and over 700 delivered projects were received for this global challenge. The final Top 3 teams are then selected to pitch at the live forum, attended virtually by hundreds of iFLYTEK senior executives, venture capitalists, media, academia, and government representatives.

For the challenge, the Top 3 Teams are Tictag, led by Mr Kevin Quah; Gleematics, led by Ms Ada Lim; and TopView, led by Mr George Tharian. Judging the 3 Teams are Dr Pauline Tay, Executive Director, Head of Innovation Partnerships, Tech Connect SEA, UBS AG, Singapore; Mr Luuk Eliens, Founding Partner of Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance; and Ms Clara Chen, General Manager of XNode Singapore.

iFLYTEK demonstrated their proprietary real-time translation technology to event attendees at Hefei, China, during the live streaming of the Final Pitch and the “Smart A.I. Education” panel discussion.

The panel speakers for the “Smart A.I. Education” are Dr Andreas Deppeler, Adjunct Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind at NUS Business School, National University of Singapore; Mr Koo Sengmeng, Senior Deputy Director for AI Innovation at AI Singapore; and Dr James Ong, Founder and CEO of Origami and Adjunct Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design. The panel was moderated by Mr Luuk Eliens, Founding Partner of Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance.¹

The panelists explored the topic of the existing use of A.I. in the education industry and its impact on educators and learners; as well as the ethics, risk and governance surrounding around A.I..

The esteemed panel speakers concluded with the notion that the future of A.I is open source. And that this future is already here.

High Resolution Photos are available on this Google Drive: [LINK]

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Annex 1 – Panel Speakers Profiles

1. Dr Andreas Deppeler is an Adjunct Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind at NUS Business School, National University of Singapore. He teaches courses on technology, innovation, data value and digital strategy. His research focuses on the economic and societal implications of artificial intelligence. He received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Rutgers University.
2. Mr Koo Sengmeng is the Senior Deputy Director for AI Innovation at AI Singapore where he leads the talent and certification programmes and initiatives. He contributes regularly to the technology ecosystem and holds official appointments in PDPC AI Governance Roundtable, IEEE AI Standards Committee and ISO SC42. He co-founded AI Professionals Association in 2020 and holds advisory positions in Singapore Computer Society, Serious Games Association and Chulalongkorn University Technology Center.
3. Dr James Ong is an entrepreneur and community builder who has incubated, invested and 3. China and ASEAN. He is the founder and CEO of Origami that provides strategy, technology and investment advisory services for venturing towards Autonomous Enterprise, founded Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII), a think tank advocating Sustainable AI for Humanity and also adjunct professor at SUTD.

Moderator – Mr Luuk Eliens, Founding Partner of Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance. Luuk started his first business at the age of seventeen and has been an entrepreneur ever since. To date, Luuk founded three businesses in the fields of energy monitoring, education and software quality. As a business leader and entrepreneur with a demonstrated track-record in innovation and technology across multiple industries and continents, Luuk has vast experience with innovation from inception to product launch and has guided hundreds of startups and corporate clients to growth and investment.

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About iFLYTEK

Founded in 1999, iFLYTEK is a well-known intelligent speech and artificial intelligence publicly listed company in the Asia-Pacific Region. Since its establishment, the company is devoted to cornerstone technological research in speech and languages, natural language understanding, machine learning, machine reasoning, adaptive learning, and has maintained the world-leading position in those domains. The company actively promotes the development of A.I. products and their sector-based applications, with visions of enabling machines to listen and speak, understand and think, creating a better world with artificial intelligence. In 2008, iFLYTEK went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (stock code 002230).

For more information, please visit https://www.iflytek.com/

About XNode

XNode is Enterprise Singapore’s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) partner for China to help Singapore technology startups and SMEs set up, test-bed and commercialise their solutions, or co-innovate with partners in Shanghai and Shenzhen through a series of highly-customised programmes and activities that will grant them access to the Chinese market, including potential investors, partners, customers and talent resources.

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About Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance

Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance (SDTA) is an impact-driven deep-tech venture builder that brings together entrepreneurs and technical talents to take advanced technologies from lab to market in 9 months. The Alliance’s mission is to reduce the environmental impact of businesses by empowering founders to rapidly build, validate and scale Industry 4.0 startups and supporting them with world-class technologies, investment, network and skills. A public-private partnership between XNode, A*Star, and NHIC, SDTA Partners include corporations such as OMRON, Micron, TÜV SÜD, Sunningdale Tech Ltd, and PlanetSpark.

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¹Annex 1 Panel Speakers Profiles

Contacts

For media enquiries:

Ms Clara Chen

General Manager

XNode Singapore

E: Clara.Chen@theXNode.sg
M: +65 9437 1808

Mr Jeffery Wang

Director of South Pacific Region, International Cooperation Division

iFLYTEK Co., Ltd.

E: hrwang3@iflytek.com
M: +86-186-559-591-00