NOVEMBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMYukYuk is an AI-powered content studio built specifically for Indonesian students, Gen Z creators, and small businesses who struggle with expensive international tools, limited editing skills, and complex workflows.The platform grew from CEO and co-founder Venandya Camelia's viral efforts to explain AI locally, after seeing that only about 6 percent of Indonesians hold credit cards despite over 181 million social media users -- making foreign, dollar-priced tools inaccessible.Users simply type an idea, select an AI model, and generate ready-to-use visuals, videos, music, voiceovers, and sound effects. YukYuk supports realistic and anime-style models, local payments through e-wallets and bank transfers, low-cost credit packs, templates for posters and product shots, and automatic vertical/square formats for platforms like TikTok and Instagram.Its core user base includes students, creators, and Indonesia's MSME sector, which makes up 99 percent of businesses and relies heavily on visual marketing.Co-founder Venandya leads product and community, while CTO Jason Inch oversees multi-model infrastructure across image, video, audio, and speech. Key traction includes a public launch on October 20, 2025, 1,500 users in the first month without paid ads, over $200 in early revenue, more than 90 percent local-payment transactions, and strong adoption of anime-style edits.YukYuk is backed by Jaideate Venture Studio with $100,000 support and is preparing a $23 million seed round to scale. Kraken has secured US$800 million in fresh funding, including a significant US$200 million investment from Citadel Securities, pushing the crypto exchange's valuation to US$20 billion.The round drew strong participation from global institutional investors such as Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management and Tribe Capital, with Citadel Securities joining a follow-on tranche.This fundraise highlights Kraken's accelerating influence in the evolving digital-asset landscape and strengthens its position within global crypto expansion and next-gen digital trading platforms.Founded in 2011, Kraken operates a regulated crypto marketplace offering spot and derivatives trading, tokenized assets, staking solutions, and payment services.The newly secured capital will fuel the company's strategic mission to bridge traditional finance with blockchain infrastructure. Kraken plans to scale its footprint across Latin America, Asia Pacific and EMEA--regions with rising demand for crypto institutional adoption and blockchain financial connectivity.In recent months, Kraken has broadened its offerings through the acquisition of NinjaTrader, enabling US-based futures trading. The funding exchange has also introduced tokenized equities and expanded its payments app, reflecting its push toward diversified digital-asset products. Citadel Securities will collaborate with Kraken to strengthen liquidity provision and risk-management infrastructure, further elevating its capabilities in regulated crypto markets.Kraken reported US$1.5 billion in revenue in 2024 and has already surpassed that number by Q3 2025, underscoring the platform's strong growth trajectory and user expansion. With new capital, global partnerships and deepened market infrastructure, Kraken is positioning itself as a long-term leader in the future of digital finance. YUKYUK LAUNCHES AI CONTENT STUDIO FOR INDONESIA'S CREATORSKRAKEN RAISES $800M, HITS $20B VALUATION AMID GLOBAL EXPANSION· AI studio built for Indonesian creators with local payments and low-cost credits· Multi-format creation including video, images, music, and voiceovers in one interface· Rapid early adoption with 1,500 users and strong traction in anime-style content
<
Page 7 |
Page 9 >