The Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode, with an operator behind the wheel, when it hit a woman walking in the street in the city of Tempe late Sunday, according to the San Francisco-based company.

The victim was hospitalized and later died from her injuries.

“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” an Uber spokesperson told AFP. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

Uber said it had temporarily halted its use of self-driving cars for testing or customer rides in Tempe, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and San Francisco.

Tempe is one of just two cities — along with Pittsburgh — where the ride-sharing firm has been using autonomous vehicles as part of its regular passenger.

The vehicle operator in the driver’s seat was the only person in the car when the accident occurred, Uber said. The car was in police hands on Monday.

Sunday’s accident was the first fatal self-driving car crash involving a pedestrian.

The first deadly self-driving car accident was reported in mid-2016, and involved a Tesla.

Sheriff needed?

The Tesla Model S, cruising on “Autopilot,” failed to detect a crossing tractor-trailer against a bright sky, killing the driver — who it later emerged had kept his hands off the wheel for extended periods of time despite automated warnings not to do so.

Investigators at the US National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the Tesla crash was the combination of “a truck driver’s failure to yield the right of way and a car driver’s inattention due to overreliance on vehicle automation.”

Autonomous-vehicle technology has been touted as having potential to save fuel, ease congestion, and to save thousands of lives by avoiding accidents due to human error.

As with the fatal Tesla crash, however, the deadly Uber accident is likely to stoke concerns that the industry is moving too fast.

Google-owned Waymo this month began using its self-driving trucks to haul cargo bound for the internet giant’s data centers in Georgia, while rival Uber announced the use of self-driving semi trucks as part of an on-demand trucking service in Arizona.

In September, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released new guidelines that permit more testing of self-driving cars.

But America’s non-profit Consumer Watchdog has warned that roads are being turned “into private laboratories for robot cars with no regard for our safety.”

The group on Monday called for a nationwide moratorium on testing self-driving cars on public roads while investigators figure out what went wrong in the Uber accident.

“Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place,” Watchdog technology project director John Simpson said in a statement.

“When there’s no sheriff in town, people get killed.”

Car vision tests?

US states set their own rules for roads, and a handful have passed laws allowing self-driving vehicles.

California and Arizona have been particularly encouraging, hoping that companies developing autonomous technology in those states will create local jobs and facilities devoted to a promising new industry.

Duke University robotics professor Missy Cummings is among the advocates of slowing down introduction of autonomous vehicles to avoid risk and get proper regulations in place.

While machines are better at staying vigilant and reacting to routine situations, human drivers have proven superior at handling unusual or unexpected situations, according to the professor.

Cummings reasoned that if people need to pass vision exams in order to get driving licenses, so should self-driving cars.

She noted a case in which putting stickers on a stop sign could fool autonomous car sensors into seeing it as a sign indicating a speed limit.

“If we are still learning at this rate, and still uncovering major problems, it begs the question of why we are trying to put this technology into widespread use,” Cummings told AFP.

“I am a big fan of the technology, but it is very unproven and experimental.”

The road to Thailand’s first “unicorn” (a start-up worth US$1 billion) is still very long. Currently, the top 10 start-ups in Thailand combined are worth less than a single unicorn, although there are already a few start-ups worth that much in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand needs to go beyond the PR and the hype of digital entrepreneurship and get real about building businesses with the potential to go global.

dtac Accelerate nurtures digitally minded entrepreneurs from concept to global growth. Since we launched in 2014, up to 70 per cent of the start-ups we mentored were at the very beginning of that journey, which is called the incubation phase. At that point, entrepreneurs usually have an idea on a PowerPoint, a team and a lot of passion.

Our job is to get them from 100 fans to 10,000 or 100,000 real customers in 12 to 18 months. But our focus is now increasingly on the next phase – acceleration.

Acceleration is a growth phase by another multiple of 10, to 500,000 or even 1 million customers. It used to represent 30-40 per cent of the start-ups we mentored. It will now be 60-70 per cent. These start-ups are under tremendous pressure to vastly increase their customer base. And with our bootcamp, we are able to do this in four months rather than the 15 months it would usually take.

As start-ups must start small and scale gradually, we are looking for start-ups that think globally yet start locally. A start-up that executes in Thailand with only the Thai market in mind will hit a brick wall as it tries to scale to 1 million customers and beyond. With Batch 6 of dtac Accelerate now open for submissions, we are prioritising passionate teams who can think globally from day one.

To support them, our Global Expansion Track offers access to the Telenor’s group customers in a dozen markets throughout the world. This is similar to the support dtac can offer, but we’re taking it worldwide.

A single Line message from dtac to its customers was able to acquire 50,000 new customers for one of our start-ups. Now imagine reaching out to Telenor’s over 200,000 customers.

It’s also very important to connect with global digital giants. Line has over 200 million active users and we’re currently the first and only accelerator they’ve partnered with in Thailand. Similarly, Google has an exclusive partnership with dtac Accelerate, where we will select Thai start-ups for their famous Launchpad programme, the most coveted accelerator in the world. They’re also sending us some of their best mentors, such as Jacob Greenspan, perhaps the leading expert on user interfaces and user experience design.

dtac Accelerate will still have start-ups in the seed-rounds of their funding growth, but Series A funding is becoming increasingly common for our alumni. Last year alone, we had three such investments. Including seed rounds, we raised a total US$9.5 million – a new record. It’s one more sign that while unicorns remain a stretch goal for Thai start-ups, our alumni are steadily moving from buzz-worthy ideas to real, sustained growth.

Sompoat Chansomboon is head of dtac Accelerate.

Universities are now engaged in grooming students to keep pace with a rapid global evolution. Their tasks include student development and enhancement of greater quality in learning/teaching, research works and educational staff, as well as the creation of an environment that better accommodates digital lifestyles.

Students are a part of the new generation and they are in search of knowledge. As they advance in life, they must cope with rapid changes in future technologies that will also reshape the processes through which they learn to live their lives, to work and to maximise their potential. To transform a university into a portal of linkage between different fields of knowledge, which will facilitate future ways of living, a cooperative educational network between that university and other organisations will be crucial. This portal must have “ecosystem” compatible with the digital world.

The CU NEX Project is a cooperative effort between Chulalongkorn University and KBank that aims to integrate all disciplines of knowledge within the university, as well as that of their partners and the surrounding community, all linked via digital technology. Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG) serves as a cornerstone for innovation and systems development to create solutions for the management of campus infrastructure, including its students, lecturers and other personnel, as well as communities nearby. This initiative is intended to make Chulalongkorn University a “Digital Lifestyle University”.

CU NEX is a prototype collaboration whose purpose is to upgrade the capabilities of leading Thai universities to achieve international levels of performance. Digital technologies will be adopted across all disciplines of study, as well as facilitate personal lifestyles in the digital era. The project emphasises development in the following three major dimensions:

Every aspect of student lifestyles will be linked via virtual IDs connected to the “CU NEX” mobile app that allows students to search for information about Chulalongkorn University, and it even includes registration, the library, internal transportation and other facility services around campus. To help students brace for the looming cashless society, they will be able to make QR code payments via the app or use their student ID cards to perform those transactions, accumulate reward points and redeem privileges from merchants on campus. The project will make use of the spaces around campus and create “PLEARN Space” as an open area for students to do activities outside their lecture halls such as socialise, conduct research or exchange information.

The capabilities of students and personnel at Chulalongkorn University will be enhanced to better blend with digital lifestyles via varying forms of incubational activities related to digital technology. New areas of investigation will be created to promote innovation between Chulalongkorn University and other institutions via such activities as “TechJam”, “MAPS” and “ChAMP”, with opportunities for students to gain even more knowledge from world-class tech hubs such as Silicon Valley. Such activities are imperative to helping students improve on what they have learned in lecture halls and labs and may even help them to set up their own business start-ups in the global marketplace. KBank will be collaborating with Chulalongkorn University to conduct R&D on Thai “natural language processing”, which will help students to further improve their use of Thai language on and beyond the campus.

A massive volume of Chulalongkorn University’s information will be used to create an individualised learning format. “Data Hub” using Machine Learning Technology will collect a broad array of information on students’ behaviour, interests and special talents. Business Intelligence (BI) algorithms will analyse that information to create the most efficient curricula and activities to match each group of students, and even to each individual, to achieve higher excellence in graduates.

Authorised access restrictions in the Data Hub will provide multiple layers of data protection. Moreover, blockchain technology is another key tool that will be applied to manage important collegiate documentation and optimise efficiency.

The CU NEX project is under constant development with the ultimate goal of not only serving over 50,000 students, lecturers and staff on campus, but also the more than 500,000 “Chula Citizens” in surrounding communities. The CU NEX project will eventually lead to the expansion of the “Digital Lifestyle University” program nationwide with Chulalongkorn University as its core model.

Patchara Samalapa is senior executive vice president, Kasikornbank

At the launch of KADE, the latest innovation by Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTG) last week, what caught everyone’s eye was not only Kasikornbank’s big step forward in using new technology to sustain and explore its financing products and services, but their success in reversing the country’s brain drain phenomenon.

KBTG presented its dream team – young, ambitious Thais, who had walked away from lucrative overseas assignments to bring their skills to their homeland.

The K Plus AI-Driven Experience (KADE) aims to serve the bank’s vision to move from digital to intelligent (banking service). It is targeting 20 million users on its own life- and financial-related platform called K PLUS Intelligent Platform within the next five years.

KADE is expected to help KBank enhance its financial services with service, design, and machine intelligence to develop new services that will serve both its existing customers and unbanked people.

There are three principal visionary architects who lead the three main intelligence teams: Chetaphan Siridanupath, Joe – service intelligence; Apirut Vancha-Am, aka Art – design intelligence; and Thadpong Pongthawornkamol, aka Team – machine intelligence.

All of them worked abroad for some years but decided to return to their homeland to use their skills and experience in developing products and services that would improve Thais’ lives.

Thadpong – machine learning team lead:

Also known as Team, he worked at Google’s headquarters for many years before moving back to his home country a couple of years ago. His role at KBTG is to utilise machine learning technology, which he has explored while working at Google in Mountain View, California.

Thadpong was a scholarship student who graduated and then worked in the United States for many years. He has never worked in Thailand.

He met KBTG chairman Somkid Jiranuntarat, who persuaded him to work at KBTG after visiting Google two years ago. Once Team decided to return home with the passion to use his skill and experience to create products/services for Thais, he chose to join KBTG.

He said at KBTG there are a lot of jobs to be done and there is an “excellent team who speak the same language”. He desired to create “value” and to explore new technology for Thais.

“It is good there are problems that need to be tackled and it is good we can solve them for Thais. For example, Machine Lending, a lending service driven by machine learning technology, aims to give many more Thais the chance to access personal loans easily and conveniently. It is very beneficial to Thais,” said Thadpong.

Apart from utilising machine learning in new product/service development, Thadpong said he also enjoys setting up a developer community culture, including working, learning and experiment culture to get the team to move fast.

“I love working here where a lot of talent are closely working together. We are not a data-science company or a mobile developer, but we blend the cross-functional teams to help KBank smoothly do the digital transformation.

“KADE is our attempt to understand customers and know indepth who they are and what they want in order to address their needs effectively. We know how customers feel about our service UX/UI (user experience/ user interface). We blend data, machine and human beings to get product and service developers to understand customers; it is the big role of KADE,” said Thadpong.

Chetaphan – service intelligence team lead:

Chetaphan won a Japanese government student scholarship, graduated, and worked in the financial sector in Japan and Hong Kong for many years. He felt bored working in the comfort zone and wanted to move back to his home country, but he had no idea where. He was not sure which company could utilise his experience and competence until he met KBTG.

He joined KBTG because he believed in the company’s vision and soon realised that there were many jobs still needing to be done and he could still make an impact for Thais.

“The impact is not from the money perspective but the value a product can give to Thais. For example, KPlus driven by KADE will make the lives of 20 million Thais better, more comfortable, and easier, and that why this job is very interesting and challenging for me,” said Chetaphan.

“Now, KBank has 8 million digital banking users (KPLus users). We are number one in digital banking, but there is still huge room to grow. We have 8 million users, while Thailand’s population is 70 million, and Vietnam’s 90 million. We are not eyeing only the Thai market. In the next five to 10 years, there are a lot of challenges ahead of us,” said Chetaphan.

His role is to oversee the overall strategy for services. He leads the service intelligence team. He said service intelligence is “what”, design intelligence is “how”, and machine intelligence is “who, when and where”.

“The three teams will work closely together to create products/services with features and functions that serve and address customers’ needs and pain points,” said Chetaphan.

Apirut Vancha-Am — design intelligence team leader

Apirut worked as a consultant and was involved in research and development on artificial intelligence and machine learning abroad for many years. He moved back to Thailand and worked at IBM Thailand as consultant, taking care of KBank for seven years. When KBank set up its new company, KBTG, in 2016 he moved from IBM Thailand and now heads KBTG’s design intelligence team.

“KBTG gives me a chance to work on my core expertise – AI and machine learning – to create products/services that make Thai users happy and offer them more convenience. When they use it, it gives me happiness as well.” said Apirut.

He said now is a golden period for technology people like him to spend the rest of their lives creating innovations that benefit people.

“It is the first time that IT has changed from cost-centred back office to benefit-centred front office. It is the first time that IT is everywhere, in every business segment, and in people’s hands,” said Apirut.

Apirut said he joined KBTG as it is a technology company that is not led by technology. Technology is just a tool. The important thing is to understand how to make people’s lives better through technology.

“My personal mission is to balance the business sustainability of the bank and bring the benefit of technology to people. We have the same passion, which is to create value for people. Working with Joe and Team is a joy. We are the dream team driving the dream,” said Apirut.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and tech start-ups could more easily access funding sources thanks to a rating system developed by the Thailand Technology Rating System (TTRS) and initiated by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).

A successful business-rating system from Korea’s Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) has been tailored for Thailand, thanks to the NSTDA joining forces with the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG). The Thailand Technology Rating System (TTRS) will aim to help SMEs and start-ups to more easily get funding.

KOTEC is a quasi-governmental institution providing guarantees, based on technology appraisals, to SMEs that are technologically competent but lack collateral.

Narong Sirilertworakul, president of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) said that the organisation on March 1 launched the Thai technology rating system after a successful trial period in which they evaluated some companies.

With the launch of TTRS, which incorporates the KOTEC rating system, tech start-ups and SMEs will be evaluated for their suitability for funding.

TTRS will consider four pillars – founders, technology, market opportunity, and company finances. Some 40 factors are evaluated under the four pillars. Those that excel in the evaluation will be given TTRS certification valid for a year.

“Companies can use TTRS certification to more easily do fundraising. TTRS will help the country’s tech start-ups be more complete,” said Narong.

“Bankers will be also benefit since they will have us as an assistant helping them to evaluate products and services as well as the business end of tech-based SMEs and start-ups, while SMEs and start-ups can more easily access additional sources of funds.”

Meanwhile, the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG) has prepared to submit the TTRS proposal to the government, along with a budget request of Bt500 million. Their contribution will be to give a “guarantee rating”, along with a credit guarantee of Bt10 million, for companies winning TTRS certification.

The credit guarantee corporation aims to help up to 50 SMEs and start-ups get the credit guarantee within the next 12 months.

Under the collaboration, NSTDA will utilise its researchers and resources to evaluate technology and market potential while TCG will evaluate the financial pillar.

“We are talking with The Thai Bankers’ Association about further collaboration with TTRS,” said Narong. Once banks accept TTRS certification, SMEs and start-ups will be more likely to seek the TTRS certification, which will in turn help them get funding.

Eventually, it helps the whole ecosystem,” he said.

He said NSTDA hopes to see TTRS succeed as a key driver helping tech companies in Thailand, in parallel to KOTEC’s success in South Korea. KOTEC evaluates 400 to 1,000 companies yearly, with the studies ranging from simple to complex technology.

“KOTEC spend only one week for the whole evaluation,” said Narong. “For TTRS, we will spend two weeks to get SMEs and start-ups certified. With our strength, we have multidisciplinary technology knowledge with over 600 PhDs. We really hope to be a key driver for Thailand’s technology industry moving forwards and become the key industry driving the country’s economy.”

He added that their multidisciplinary technologies knowledge allows for evaluating a wide range of technologies, including biotechnology, materials technology, nanotechnology, and others. They will not be limited to evaluating only computer technology companies.

“In fact, TTRS can help not only SMEs and start-ups. The system has been developed and tested to evaluate the enterprise as well,” said Narong.

TTRS will help draw investment money into the country’s tech industry, Narong said, because many non-bank investors will feel more confident in tech companies and will move their money to invest in the TTRS-certified tech companies.

“TTRS will be the key mechanism to fill in the [knowledge] gap between tech companies – both SMEs and start-ups – and investment. We hope TTRS will help open more investment opportunities for the investors while help creates more numbers of investors,” said Narong.

The new phone features dual front cameras (16- and 2-megapixel resolutions) and dual rear cameras (13- and 2-megapixel resolutions).

It also has a 4,000 mAh battery matching those of much more expensive flagship smartphones, a 5.93-inch Huawei FullView Display with 18:9 aspect ratio, Face Unlock and Fingerprint screen unlock features, dual SIM support, external storage support for up to 256GB, Kirin 659 Octa-core processor, and the AndroidTM 8.0 operating system with EMUI 8.0 user interface.

Huawei is offering a Body Fat Scale worth Bt2,990 as a gift for customers who pre-order a Y9 2018 through March 29 at any Huawei Brand Shop or dealer nationwide, as well as at participating online stores.

Sales will officially start on March 30.

ฺThe convenience store chain will use the technology in a number of different ways, including to help identify loyal customers, analyse customer traffic and monitor stock levels of products.

Facial recognition will also be used to suggest products to customers and even monitor their emotions while customers are in store, as well as being used to keep tabs on employees.

The company has said it is using the technology developed by American firm Remark Holdings, which claims its facial recognition software has a 96 percent accuracy rate. Last year, Remark Holdings announced a $10 million investment in CP Group, which operates 7-Eleven in Thailand.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Kai-Shing Tao, Remark’s chief executive said: “Artificial intelligence has the power to completely transform business in every industry.

“CP Group recognised this right away and is making it a very high priority to adopt and implement AI technologies.” With facial recognition still somewhat in its infancy, the technology raises a lot of questions with regards to privacy.

However, Remark has said that no images of faces will be stored permanently on servers and that only images of facial features are recorded on secure and encrypted servers.

“No human faces or images ever leaves the KanKan system or goes on the public network,” the company said.

And no facial images will be linked to consumers customer data such as names, addresses or telephone numbers. It is not known exactly when 7-Eleven stores in Thailand will start implementing the facial recognition technology.

Dtac Accelerate has annually groomed 10 to 12 start-ups, said Lars Norling, chief executive officer, Total Access Communication PLC or DTAC. The programme graduates are now able to create digital innovations to help enhance customers’ day-to-day lives and contribute to Thai society.

“DTAC is one of the pioneers in the start-up ecosystem,” said Norling.

Since its beginning, dtac Accelerate has been committed to creating the first start-up unicorn in Thailand and to help start-ups expand into international markets.

And while the unicorn so far remains elusive, dtac Accelerate batches 1 to 5 have helped nurture Thai start-ups to a combined value of over US$100 million (Bt3.13 billion), with graduates collectively securing $5 million (Bt31.31 million) in investment and 70 per cent follow-on funding, the highest in Southeast Asia.

For 2018, dtac Accelerate features a training program from the Google LaunchPad Accelerator and mentoring from world-class start-up gurus. The gurus include Jacob Greenspan, an expert in user experience and user interface (UI/UX) for product development, Jake Knapp, an expert in the “design sprint” process used to develop new ideas, and many other mentors from around the world.

Moreover, DTAC is also collaborating with Line Thailand to offer Thai start-ups an opportunity to reach 42 million users on that platform.

Andrew Kvalseth, DTAC’s chief marketing officer, said that 2017 saw increased investments and steady growth in the Thai start-up industry, a reflection of the country’s expanding start-up ecosystem. Dtac Accelerate has played a key role in building this ecosystem.

In 2017 alone, dtac Accelerate alumni raised investment totalling $9.5 million, including three series A investments and eight seed investments.

Its start-ups got 70 per cent follow-on funding compared to a 20 per cent regional average.

Exclusive Google partner

Google is clearly impressed.

“Google has selected dtac Accelerate as their exclusive partner for Google Launchpad,” said Kvalseth. “We have access to their full curriculum. We are the ones screening start-ups for their launchpad. And they’re sending us some of their top people, like Jacob Greenspan.

“We’re also the first, and currently only, accelerator to work with Line. Line will support our start-ups with user acquisition, thanks to their 42 million-strong customer base in Thailand.

Line not only has an API platform for start-ups to plug into but is also launching its own venture capital fund, said Kvalseth.

The partnership with Google Launchpad Accelerator will allow selected start-ups from batch 6 to take part in the Google Launchpad Accelerator in San Francisco, USA.

As well, the partnership with Line Scale-up will offer start-ups a co-marketing opportunity with access to more than 42 million Line users, an investment opportunity from Line, and participation in Line Dev Day at Line Corporation headquarters in Tokyo in September.

“We also have partnerships with Thailand’s leading corporations such as Muang Thai Life Assurance, Siri Ventures and PTT’s Express Solutions,” said Sompoat Chansomboon, managing director of dtac Accelerate.

The dtac Accelerate batch 6 provides support in three areas: a technical pack by Clouds partners AWS, Google Clouds, IBM, and Tencent; a marketing pack by DTAC, FB, Line@, PTT, San Siri, MTL, Thairath, and Fastwork; and a talent pack by Getlink, Scoutout, Google Ignite, Skooldio, Disrupt University, Globish, Senseino and Google Developer Group Thailand.

Application submissions are open for dtac Accelerate batch 6 until April 11, with participants announced on May 4, then Pitch Day on May 11, 2018, Boot Camp from May to August, and Demo Day on the last week of August.

New Zealand regulators late Tuesday approved plans for Zephyr Airworks, a subsidiary of Page’s company Kitty Hawk, to develop and test the futuristic air taxis.

Known as Cora, the electric aircraft has a dozen small lift rotors on its wings, making it capable of vertical take-off and landing like a helicopter.

But developers say it is much quieter, meaning it could transport passengers in urban areas using rooftops and car parks as landing pads.

“We are offering a pollution free, emission free vehicle that flies dependably, we think this is the logical next step in the evolution of transportation,” Zephyr chief executive Fred Reid said.

The Cora prototype being tested in New Zealand’s South Island uses three on-board computers to calculate its flight path and is capable of carrying two passengers.

The computers operate independently as a safety measure and the aircraft can deploy a parachute if anything goes wrong.

The aircraft, previously known as Zee.Aero, has a range of 100 kilometres (62 miles), reaching speeds of 150 kmh and an altitude of up to 900 metres (3,000 feet).

The Cora project envisages the air taxis becoming so common that “air travel will be woven into our daily lives”.

‘Like science fiction’

Zephyr said using them would be a simple experience for passengers.

“You wouldn’t have to know anything about flying a plane. Cora could fly for you,” it said in a promotional video. “And it would be all-electric, helping to build a sustainable world.”

Page’s company is also developing a prototype personal aircraft called the Kitty Hawk Flyer and unveiled an early model in the United States last year.

However, it looked more like a recreational plaything than a flying car, suitable only for flying above water and seating the pilot in an open top cabin exposed to the elements.

Cora appears far more robust, with a design more like a traditional aircraft featuring wings, a tail and a closed canopy for passengers.

The aircraft will not be offered for sale, instead the public must book trips like they would with an airline or taxi service.

Zephyr said Cora took eight years to design but then developers needed a suitable environment to safely test the new technology.

They settled on New Zealand because of its uncongested airspace and rigorous regulatory environment, with Reid saying local officials had embraced the idea.

“We had no idea what to expect,” he said. “They could have laughed us out of the room. We were pitching something that sounded like science fiction.”

Cora has been given an experimental airworthiness certificate from the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority.

Trialling the flying taxi service will reportedly take six years, with operations based around the city of Christchurch.

“This aircraft represents the evolution of the transport eco system to one that responds to a global challenge around traffic and congestion, and is kinder to the planet,” Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel said.

The company said it used its own funds to reimburse about 46.6 billion yen ($440 million) to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, a leading cryptocurrency.

“Procedures have been completed with the accounts of all 260,000 customers,” company spokesman Yosuke Imai told AFP.

Thieves syphoned away 523 million units of the cryptocurrency from Coincheck — then valued at $547 million — during the January 26 hack, which exceeded the $480 million in bitcoin stolen in 2014 from another Japanese exchange, MtGox.

The 2014 hack prompted Japan to issue new regulations, requiring exchanges to obtain a government licence, but Coincheck was allowed to continue operating while the Financial Services Agency was reviewing its application.

Authorities raided Coincheck’s office last month and have slapped the company with sanctions.

Coincheck chief operating officer Yusuke Otsuka said last week that the company’s system was breached after several staff members opened emails containing malware.

The firm had failed to upgrade its systems to keep up with the rapid expansion of the cryptocurrency market, he said.

In February, seven plaintiffs — two companies and five individuals — filed a lawsuit against Coincheck seeking the reimbursement of 19.53 million yen in lost virtual currency and further compensation for interest lost due to the hack.

As many as 10,000 businesses in Japan are thought to accept bitcoin, and bitFlyer — the country’s main bitcoin exchange — saw its user base grow beyond one million in November.