Business briefs

BigWin Infotech, which operates peer-to-peer lending marketplace PaisaDukan.com, Wednesday said it has appointed former Infosys executive V Balakrishnan as a member of its advisory board. Balakrishnan has held leadership positions in finance and is an expert in corporate finance, international taxation, risk management and mergers and acquisitions, PaisaDukan.com said in a statement.

He has also founded Exfinity Venture Partners where he currently serves as a partner and chairman, it added. "Balakrishnan is an acclaimed financial strategist. Under his guidance and with support, it is assured that PaisaDukan.com will always be under the light of success," PaisaDukan Founder and CMD Rajiv M Ranjan said.

* * * * Belfrics group appoints former RIL exec as CTO

* Belfrics, a Malaysia-based global blockchain infrastructure company, Wednesday said it has appointed former Reliance Industries executive Kumar Kushal as its Chief Technology Officer. Kushal, presently, is the Global CTO for Tiller Capital, a New-York based multibillion dollar investment house.

"With his in-depth knowledge of technology...and more than 15 years of experience in the banking and financial services domain, Kushal's mission is to grow Belfrics into a global market leader in blockchain technology driven business solutions," Belfrics said in a statement. The company plans to hire hundreds hands-on Java resources in Bengaluru to deliver the current business pipeline Belfrics has from the US, Africa and the Middle East, it added.

* * * * Qlik acquires CrunchBot to augment conversational analytics capabilities

* Qlik Wednesday said it has acquired CrunchBot's AI-powered analytics bot along with Crunch Data Inc's team of artificial intelligence and solution development professionals. "This expands Qlik’s existing augmented intelligence and cognitive capabilities by delivering additional conversational analytics leveraging Qlik’s platform and open APIs," Qlik said in a statement.

However, the company did not disclose any financial details. "These acquisitions help expand the ability of our customers and partners to leverage data and insights where work happens, increasing the value of both data and the organisation," Qlik CEO Mike Capone said.