KUALA LUMPUR: Japan's SoftBank Corp will invest US$60 million (RM247 million) in Axiata Group Bhd's data analytics and artificial intelligence unit, ADA, to establish the latter as its core digital and data marketing partner in Asia.
The move was part of SoftBank's ambition to expand and accelerate the group's analytics, data and artificial intelligence (AI) digital marketing business in the region.
SoftBank will hold 23.07 stake in ADA.
Axiata Digital Services will remain the majority shareholder of ADA at 63.47 per cent and Sumitomo Corp at 13.5 per cent, valuing the unit for RM1.07 billion.
Axiata Group president and group chief executive officer Datuk Izzaddin Idris said it was delighted to have SoftBank as a business partner and co- shareholder to ADA.
"With the capability, ecosystem, track record that SoftBank has and will bring to the table, we can accelerate the target of achieving US$2 billion business across Southeast Asia within five years," he said at a virtual press conference here today.
He said Axiata Group can expect strategic alliance with Sumitomo to further fuel ADA's growth momentum within the region, unlocking synergistic opportunities that will form one of the pillars to deliver on Axiata's Digital Champion ambition.
Now serving over 1,300 clients in the region, the additional funding of RM247 million will allow ADA to develop big data platform to use data for consumer rights, predict consumer mindset, and help business decisioning, while developing AI models with primary focus on digital marketing and investing in technology for automation of content creation for advertising.
"More brands than ever today in Asia are turning to data analytics and AI to differentiate their products and services in the highly competitive digital marketing industry.
"With this added business and capital boost, we are better placed to develop AI models for precision targeting, invest in content analytics, and establish data platforms to deliver insights and help businesses pivot for growth," Izzaddin said.
SoftBank representative director and chairman Ken Miyauchi said the company had been executing its beyond carrier growth strategy by expanding into new business areas outside its core telecom business.
"This alliance with ADA heralds a new theme in this growth strategy as it will enable us to deploy our digital marketing business outside Japan by leveraging ADA's presence in Asia as a leading data and AI company.
"We look forward to collaborating closely with the ADA team so we can help companies in the Asia-Pacific region accelerate the digital transformation of their businesses," he added.
ADA chief executive officer Srinivas Gattamneni said the post-Covid norm was a 'digital- first' economy, which the company had been building towards.
"The capital and business alliance with SoftBank will further propel ADA's digital, analytics and marketing solutions to benefit our customers," he added.
With presences in nine countries across Southeast Asia, ADA expects to benefit from the unlocking of significant global synergistic opportunities.
SoftBank, a Fortune 500 telecommunications company with strong investment portfolio headquartered in Japan, aims to leverage its network of portfolio companies in proposing and providing digital marketing solutions that incorporate ADA's proprietary technologies and consumer AI models.
This alliance also allows SoftBank to expand their footprint in the region by bringing its customer data platform (CDP), 'Treasure Data'; and the consumer base of its communication app, 'LINE' for the benefit of brands and marketers.