SFIO Acquires PH-based Tech and Software Development Hub LNS+ to Establish Global, Cross-Industry Innovation Ecosystem
The acquisition brings a full suite of tech platform development and maintenance capacities to the asset management companies; As part of SFIO’s investment roadmap into future-oriented industries, establishing LEENTech Network Systems as the group’s new Technology and Software Development division creates new avenues for collaborative innovation across SFIO’s diverse portfolio of companies
NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earlier this week, OTC:SFIO Starfleet Innotech, Inc. (Smokefree Innotec, Inc.) announced its acquisition of Philippine-based software development company LEENTech Network Solutions (LNS+), marking the asset management company’s new direction towards technology development. With LNS+ and its subsidiaries now onboard, SFIO is formalizing the team into their new Technology and Software Development Division.
According to SFIO CEO and Chairman Jeths Lacson, this new expansion kicks off a five-year innovation roadmap of transformative collaborations across each of the company’s five divisions: Franchising, Food Manufacturing and Distribution, Coffee, Property Development, and the recently-formed Technology and Software Development.
With 11 years of operation, LNS+ has established itself as a leading hub for technological excellence in the Philippines. Today, the company and its subsidiaries command a growing roster of over forty engineers, designers, systems architects, UX specialists, blockchain developers, and project managers. In addition, they’ve partnered with over 17 universities to build a sustainable and thriving talent pool. Altogether, LNS+ represents a fully fleshed out ecosystem of tech builders. With this latest acquisition, SFIO now fully owns and operates six ecosystem players:
- LEENTech Network Solutions - Software & Platform Development
- Webworx Design Studio - Web Development, UI and UX Design, and Graphic Design
- Qalidad Solutions - Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Department Unit)
- Voltz Security - Vulnerability Assessment and Security (Department Unit)
- Livewire365 - Server Architecture and Maintenance
- DHQ Digital Marketing - Digital Marketing Services
“With the LNS+ teams formalized into our new tech division, all our existing businesses and future businesses immediately benefit from having a full suite of digital transformation partners,” Lacson said. Now, Lacson plans to scale their digital transformation efforts globally with the establishment of tech innovation hubs across key strategic regions.
LNS+ Founder Richard F. Prodigalidad, who now serves as the CEO of SFIO’s Technology and Software Development Division, sees this as both a fulfillment of his ambitions for LNS+, as well as an evolution of its mission.
“When I founded LNS+ back in 2010, my original mission was to develop technologies that would be used throughout the world,” said Prodigalidad. “With SFIO’s expansion plans to establish tech hubs in New Zealand, Australia, Dubai, and the United States, that original mission is really becoming a reality in a very concrete way.”
“I built LEENTech to be a startup enabler, launching dozens of tech projects and spinning them off into their own businesses,” Prodigalidad said. “It’s easy to build an app or a website, but to launch a company — that takes more than code. Our mission at LNS+ was to invest in talent, nurture engineers and designers into entrepreneurs and leaders. As an asset management company, SFIO has the same mission — to build leaders. By investing in talent, what we’re really doing is giving them the best possible shot at long-term success.”
With the establishment of their global hubs, that goal has now expanded. SFIO’s international reach presents a lucrative opportunity to not only build solutions across borders, but to also showcase the massive potential of tech talents in emerging markets like the Philippines. Pulling from Richard’s mission as a startup enabler, SFIO intends to be a catalyst for change in both the industries they operate in and the communities they serve.
Now serving on SFIO’s top-level management team, Prodigalidad’s current mandate is to survey the asset management company’s portfolio for opportunities to both streamline existing operations with technology, and build entirely new systems to disrupt the industries they operate across. As SFIO begins to establish its global presence through strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, and the establishment of its tech hubs, a number of promising projects have already cropped up at their new tech division.
For SFIO’s recently announced joint venture with real estate company Omnicor, Prodigalidad’s tech division will be developing community wellness monitoring tools and health data systems to be incorporated into a state-of-the-art “tech village” in Montemaria, Batangas in the Philippines.
Looking across the group’s franchising, coffee, and food manufacturing and distribution divisions, Prodigalidad’s team will also be working on a unified, streamlined logistics platform. This platform will leverage machine learning and similar AI applications to achieve real time data analytics for a truly scalable solution. With this project, SFIO aims to not only standardize the operations of their different businesses across the supply chain, but to also bring value to their franchisees and ultimately, their customers, who will now benefit from a truly seamless, tech-powered system.
Utilizing their in-house expertise in blockchain technology, the group also intends to revolutionize how asset management companies manage their portfolios. Investors can expect instant insights and the ability to participate in SFIO’s growth in real time, using digital tokens powered by the blockchain. It’s a novel application of decentralized technologies that the group hopes will set a new golden standard for trust and transparency.
“The reason we’re able to take on all these projects is we’re being strategic about not reinventing the wheel,” said Prodigalidad. “Over the years, we’ve built a series of modular technologies that we can easily deploy in order to rapidly build e-commerce platforms, e-learning tools, food delivery services, decentralized apps — whatever our clients need. Now we’re taking all those tech engines, as I call them, and running them full throttle across SFIO’s different ventures.”
The end goal of these ventures, says SFIO CEO and Chairman Lacson, is to leverage technology in order to collaborate towards greater efficiency and shared profitability. Similarly, the breadth of proprietary platforms the tech division will be developing, as well as the related trademarks and intellectual property, promises to bring new value to the asset management company in the mid-to-long term.
“I come from the startup world so my job now is to bring that disruptive mindset and marry it with the broad resources of SFIO,” Prodigalidad said. “It’s been a really thrilling experience for me and my team so far, and we’re all very excited to be joining the SFIO community.”
SFIO, which has just filed their Q3 financial reports in line with their broader plans to uplist onto the Nasdaq, will be publishing more news about their upcoming projects in the weeks to come.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Craymond Yeong, PR & Marketing Specialist
Epiphany Café
Phone: (+64) 21 0833 2966
Email: info@sfio.co.nz
AboutSmokefree Innotec, Inc.
Smokefree Innotec, Inc. (OTC: SFIO) is an Asset Management Company, and is a conglomerate of several companies with five strategic business divisions, namely: franchising, food manufacturing and distribution, coffee business, property development, as well as technology and software development – all of which currently have a strong presence in New Zealand and Australia, and the Philippines.
SFIO is the new owner and operator of Epiphany Café Franchise Group, Ardent Bakers, Gorgeous Coffee Co., A+ Electrical, AG Architects and Accord Investment Group (AIG) following the successful acquisition of Agrokings, Inc.
About LEENTech Network Solutions, Inc.
LEENTech Network Systems (LNS+) is a startup ecosystem enabler and software development company building and maintaining technological platforms for enterprises and SMEs. Since its founding in 2010, LNS+ has established itself as one of the Philippines’ leading innovation partners, utilizing their library of “tech engines” to help entrepreneurs and incumbents rapidly digitize operations and unlock new opportunities on their transformation journeys.
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