South Asia Investor Review

Washington D.C. based AI technology firm Afiniti, founded by serial Pakistani-American entrepreneur  Zia Chishti , has filed for initial public offering (IPO) at $1.6 billion valuation, according to VentureBeat. Zia Chishti founded his first company  Align Technology  in 1997 in  Silicon Valley . It creates clear plastic braces for straightening teeth by using advanced 3-D computer imaging. The technology now trademarked as  Invisalign  has  helped millions of people  straighten their teeth for a beautiful smile without enduring the pain and unsightly looks of the traditional steel brackets and wires used in orthodontics. Align Technology is now valued at $10 billion. Afiniti: Afiniti  uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to enable real-time, optimized pairing of individual call center agents with individual customers in large enterprises for best results. When a customer contacts a call center, Afiniti matches his or her phone ...

Saiyed Atiq Raza, prominent Silicon Valley Pakistani-American and venture investor, agreed to pay $3m in fine to settle SEC charges of insider trading, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges against Saiyed Atiq Raza, 58 years old, a former president and chief operating officer of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., stemmed from trades he made in 2006 while serving as a director of San Francisco orthodontic device maker OrthoClear Holdings Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Raza was also barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years, and he was permanently enjoined from future violations of the federal securities laws. The SEC alleged that Mr. Raza in September 2006 was informed by OrthoClear's chief executive Zia Chishti that the company had agreed to cease competing with rival Align Technology Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif. The agreement, which effectively put OrthoClear out of business, followed a long-runn...