JULYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMAI STARTUP FIRM TYPEFACE VALUED AT $1 BILLION AFTER SALESFORCE-LED FUNDRAISETEMASEK SELLS 1.85 PERCENT STAKE IN SINGAPORE AIRLINES, REMAINS AS TOP INVESTORTypeface, a generative AI platform for enterprise content creation, said later this week that it was valued at $1 billion after an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Salesforce's global investment arm, bringing the total capital raised to $165 million.The $100 million round also saw participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV (Google Ventures), Menlo Ventures, and M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, the firm said.Typeface, which provides a wide range of workflows across departments, including marketing, sales, product, and human resources, had signed strategic partnerships with Salesforce and Google this month to create highly customized content within their existing workflows.In February, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Menlo Ventures, and M12 invested $65 million when Typeface emerged from stealth and launched publicly.AI startups have emerged as a bright spot for investments this year amid a wider slowdown in funding caused by rising interest rates and high inflation. Singapore's state investment firm Temasek is selling around S$400 million ($295.92 million) worth of shares, or a 1.85 per cent stake, in the country's national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA), according to a term sheet seen by sources this week.The shares are priced between S$7.202 and S$7.283 per share, the sheet shows, representing a 2.89 percent and 3.97 percent discount to the last close of S$7.50 later this week.Temasek will continue to be a major shareholder in SIA with a 53.5 percent stake, according to Reuters' calculations.Citi is the sole bookrunner on the share sale, the term sheet showed.Citi declined to comment."As an active investor, we regularly reshape and rebalance our portfolio to deliver sustainable returns over the long term," Juliet Teo, Temasek's Head of Transportation & Logistics, said in an emailed statement in response to sources query on Wednesday."We are committed to the long-term success of SIA and continue to maintain a majority stake in it," she added.SIA announced last month a record-high profit of S$2.16 billion for the year ended Mar 31, after posting losses for the past three years, and said it was off to a strong start with higher bookings to China, Japan and South Korea as pandemic curbs ended globally.Shares of SIA have jumped almost 36 percent so far this year.
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