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TuneIn Hires Digital Media Industry Veteran Stefan Zilch as General Manager for Germany, Positions Company for Global Growth and Acceleration

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The ex-Spotify and Acast director will enable TuneIn to strengthen regional radio partnerships as the company looks to become the leading distribution channel for live audio within the German market

TuneIn, the world’s leading live streaming audio service, announced that Stefan Zilch has been hired as General Manager for Germany, and has opened the company’s first international office in Berlin, as part of the company’s ongoing global growth initiatives. Zilch has over 20 years of digital media experience and has previously served as Managing Director for both Acast and Spotify. Under Zilch’s leadership, TuneIn will be able to strengthen and form key radio partnerships within Germany, the largest listening market for TuneIn outside the US, enabling the company to leverage and expand its inventory of global content abroad.

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“The German radio market is very vibrant, with over 500 unique radio stations reaching over 65 million listeners. Under Stefan’s leadership, TuneIn will deepen our ability to serve the German radio market and deliver localized value to our broadcast partners and listeners.”

“TuneIn is an ally to the industry as we together reinvent radio for the modern listener,” said Richard Stern, CEO of TuneIn. “The German radio market is very vibrant, with over 500 unique radio stations reaching over 65 million listeners. Under Stefan’s leadership, TuneIn will deepen our ability to serve the German radio market and deliver localized value to our broadcast partners and listeners.”

Every month, over 80 million listeners use TuneIn to engage with their favorite sports, music, news & talk, and podcasts. With premiere distribution across 200 platforms and connected devices, TuneIn features content from over 100,000 owned and operated and partner radio stations, and boasts more than 5.7 million podcasts. TuneIn brings together the best of radio – live, local, and on-demand from around the world.

“TuneIn is providing a unique growth opportunity for radio stations around the world, enabling regional broadcasters to reach a global audience without letting go of their traditional distribution models,” said Zilch. “As the radio industry continues to go fully digital, TuneIn is quickly becoming the leading distribution channel for live audio content globally. I’m very excited to be part of the team, and I look forward to helping TuneIn reinvent digital radio in Germany together with the radio industry and elsewhere around the world.”

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IRI and Nissin Foods Partner to Drive Growth Through Innovation and Premiumization

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Kaltura and Reshet 13, Israel’s Leading Broadcaster, Expand Partnership & Launch Full End-to-End Cloud-TV Solution

Nissin sees dollar sales and purchase frequency increase three- and six-times faster than the category, respectively

IRI®, a fast-growing, global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, and Nissin Foods USA, a food company that specializes in the production and sale of convenience food and instant noodles with brands such as Top Ramen® and Cup Noodles®, have partnered to drive Nissin’s consistent growth through innovative product launches, including Cup Noodles® Stir Fry™ and Hot & Spicy Fire Wok. These successful launches have driven incredible growth for Nissin, as it expands the premium segment. Nissin is reporting increasing dollar sales and purchase frequency at three- and six-times the broader Instant Noodle category performance, respectively, over the last year.1

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“The results of Nissin’s product launch strategy demonstrate the value add that IRI’s solutions and talented teams can have for our small and midsize clients. We look forward to continuing to partner with Nissin as they release new, innovative products that meet the needs of their consumer base.”

Nissin leveraged IRI’s Market Shopper Intelligence and Hendry Market Structure solutions for a fast and holistic read of the category landscape through concept testing and consumer attitudinal learnings. This enabled Nissin to not only determine the potential size of the market opportunity, but also identify specific consumer groups that were likely to maximize sales of the new products.

“As an innovation leader in the ramen category for more than 50 years, Nissin is constantly evaluating opportunities to grow our market share within the premium ramen segment,” said Michael J. Price, president and chief executive officer of Nissin Foods USA. “Our partnership with IRI has offered invaluable insights into the competitive landscape and consumer attitudes, helping us to implement internal strategies that increased our dollar sales and purchase frequency. We look forward to leveraging IRI’s platforms and talented team for future product launches as we continue identifying new ways to delight our consumers.”

“Understanding where a company stands relative to its peers and with consumers is essential when considering the launch of new product innovation, particularly for small and midsize CPG companies which are often better able to capitalize on emerging opportunities with expedited rollouts of new products,” said Bob Sanders, executive vice president and practice leader for Health Care, Home and Mid-Market at IRI. “The results of Nissin’s product launch strategy demonstrate the value add that IRI’s solutions and talented teams can have for our small and midsize clients. We look forward to continuing to partner with Nissin as they release new, innovative products that meet the needs of their consumer base.”

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Within3 Reimagines Life Science Communications to Address Insight Gaps with Industry-first, Holistic Platform

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FLIP Maximizes Earning Potential for Digital Creators with Commissioned Video Reviews, Content Dashboard

Within3 Select, Connect, and Discover follow strategic path creating the Insights Management Platform

Within3’s hybrid engagement platform is proven to increase the volume, quality, and value of insights generated by life science innovators, their key opinion leaders, patients, and other stakeholders. That’s why multidisciplinary teams in the largest pharmaceutical and medical device companies use Within3 to run engagement programs like advisory boards, congress huddles, and publication planning.

Thousands of engagements revealed pain points across life science teams – data disseminated in disparate locations or silos, void of input from the most appropriate stakeholders – leaving the need for well-informed, fast answers to guide strategies unfilled.

The result is the insight gap: a problem that leads companies to base decisions on old or incomplete data, wasting billions of dollars and years of work.

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Solving the Insight Gap at Every Stage of the Product Development Lifecycle

Within3 Select, Connect and Discover combine insights gathered from each phase of the product life cycle on platform to identify the right people, engage them and deliver answers. It solves the insights gap at every stage of the product development lifecycle, from planning, recruiting, and engaging to analyzing, product launch, and beyond.

Within3 Select identifies the right physicians, patients, stakeholders, key industry leaders, and associated experts, for the right problem at the right time.

Within3 Connect is a better way for pharmaceutical, medtech and life sciences companies to converse with the people who matter most. It’s a hybrid communication platform that gives stakeholders the freedom to engage anytime, anywhere, on any connected device. It provides an environment that prioritizes participant schedules.

Life science innovators using Connect regularly report substantial gains in KOL participation, actionable insights and acceleration of regulatory submissions, responses or guideline publication.

Within3 Discover consolidates insights gathered across the enterprise and in the field into one place. Proprietary AI-powered natural language processing enables life science companies to understand key concepts, scientific trends, and sentiment, unlocking answers that drive positive business outcomes.

“As it stands today, the process of gathering insights, let alone the right ones, can take months. In that time a great deal can happen to compromise the information obtained, making it outdated or obsolete and driving up cost with each iteration,” says Within3 CEO Lance Hill. “With multiple systems from different vendors in each phase of the process, teams are faced with inconsistent outcomes, and ultimately, very isolated execution tactics as opposed to a cohesive strategy.”

More than ever, global enterprises, especially life science organizations, need insights from the right experts to work effectively and efficiently in a dynamic marketplace where in-person access is not assured and speed-to-market is critical to success.

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Inclusivv Expands Management Team with Nonviolent Communication Advocate

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Inclusivv Selected as a Venture Atlanta 2021 Presenting Company
Mission-driven engagement platform adds operations manager to streamline day-to-day and big picture company goals

Inclusivv, a platform enabling top brands, communities and individuals to ignite change through structured conversations, announces the hiring of Jen Gergen as Operations Manager.

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In this role, Gergen will support the Inclusivv team’s growth by adding automation and efficiency to company processes, further defining role clarity, collaborating with customers, sponsors, and staff. This work, combined with her background in nonviolent communication (NVC), further improves both internal dialogues and the company’s conversations.

“When I assessed my next opportunity, Inclusivv stuck out as an organization truly passionate about authentically bringing people together through a tool readily at their disposal, the art of conversation,” said Gergen. “The core focus of the conversation experience is always about the people, ensuring the intent matches the impact. Working at a company like Inclusivv presents a unique opportunity for me to combine my passion for NVC, activism and dismantling white supremacy culture with years of operations experience.”

Before Inclusivv, Gergen spent many years building and running operations for the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), one of the country’s largest and most established sales organizations. Following Inclusivv’s recent rebrand, this expertise proves invaluable as Gergen is dedicated to highlighting the company’s focus on creating a more inclusive and sustainable world during this growth stage, improving existing processes and optimizing resources.

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“Our structured conversation design is world-class and requires employees of the same caliber,” said Jenn Graham, Inclusivv CEO. “We’re excited Jen joined our team. She’s bringing intention to how we function internally, from creating role clarity to embedding key communication principles into how we engage with one another. Jen’s operational leadership will set us up for scale and her grasp of nonviolent communication training will have huge ripple effects with how we communicate with our partners, customers and end-users.”

In addition to helping advance Inclusivv’s operations, Jen plays a role in finalizing conversation topics like Critical Race Theory and this fall’s upcoming Sustainability Series. Jen also oversees the continuous improvement of sensitive conversation topics like Belonging, Allyship and Mental Health, ensuring all discussions are always structured as tactfully and positively as possible with integrity.

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JUNO Community Site Presents Education, Inspiration, Perspective, Connection

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JUNO Community Site Presents Education, Inspiration, Perspective, Connection

Business leaders present webinars and micro courses for event, hospitality professionals

JUNO, a software company that connects and educates people in virtual environments for events and year-round, has created a modern learning experience for the event and hospitality space.

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“We’ve curated micro courses and developed a webinar series to demonstrate the capabilities of our software for connecting and educating people year-round. The Launch U modern learning experience and the online chat webinar offerings are built into JUNO’s event and engagement software service,” says Josh Hotsenpiller, Founder and CEO of JUNO. “Our experience in community software and human connection led us to create this tool, designed for the digital transformation era.”

Hotsenpiller has two webinar interviews scheduled this month with leaders in the business events space. Both will share their takeaways on the evolving event landscape and reveal how they continue to iterate, innovate and impact their audiences.

Small Steps to Big Change Online Chat with IASLC’s Megan Martin, CMP, DES, MPA will be 12pET/9aPT on Thursday, September 16. Martin, Associate Director of Conferences at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, will discuss why IASLC made the choice to standardize their event and engagement platform on JUNO. Participants will take home considerations for attendee UX design, best practices for RFP and event tech selection, and hybrid strategies for success.

Small Steps to Big Change Online Chat with John Rubsamen, Americans for the Arts will be 2pmET/11aPT on September 30. Also President of PCMA Capital Chapter, Rubsamen will talk about how he is providing engagement in the digital and hybrid arena for Americans for the Arts and how his team redesigned AFTA’s in-person events by identifying opportunities to retain audiences and grow them through the advantages of virtual programming as an accessible enhancement to in-person events.

“We are focused on aiding clients to extend the event experience and use technology to support members all year long,” Hotsenpiller said. “Events don’t have to be singular instances, and for those focused on growth, they cannot be. JUNO’s software platform supports events being part of a 365-day conversation that encourages interactions and furthers education.”

Launch U is seven courses from a variety of leaders offering video lessons, articles and questions driven by EQ principles to inspire and guide.

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iKOMG Announces New Marketing Director

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iKOMG Announces New Marketing Director

Ayellet Bar has been appointed Marketing Director at iKO Media Group

iKO Media Group, a leading global end-to-end service provider for broadcasters and content owners, announces and welcomes Ayellet Bar as Marketing Director effective immediately. Ayellet will be responsible for conceiving and executing marketing strategies and tactics that drive growth. In addition, she will help overall brand development and messaging in the satellite broadcasting and media delivery and management industry. iKOMG is looking to expand its marketing efforts and provide a stronger presence globally.

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As iKOMG’s Marketing Director, Ayellet Bar will be responsible for the development of an overall organizational marketing strategy including the management of all of the new and existing marketing programs and company brand as well the enhancement of iKOMG’s social marketing initiatives.

Ayellet brings over 10 years of progressive education and marketing experience to the position including working in Strategic Marketing Management, B2B Positioning and Digital Marketing Management, brand positioning, event project management and communications strategy.

“I am thrilled to have joined the iKO Media Group team. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed  our society, making brand social and digital awareness more critical than ever,” said Ayellet Bar. “I look forward to using my skills and experience to make a meaningful contribution to this amazing organization and the broadcasters and content owners it serves.”

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Gutenberg Technology Adds Leading Industry Expert Ken Brooks to Advisory Board

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Gutenberg Technology Adds Leading Industry Expert Ken Brooks to Advisory Board

Founder of Treadwell Media Group Brings Extensive Expertise In Lean Content Development And Management Of Content Operations

Gutenberg Technology (GT), provider of the premier end-to-end content management platform, today announced the appointment of Ken Brooks to its advisory board, effective immediately. Brooks, the founder of Treadwell Media Group and former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Content Officer at Macmillan Learning and Wiley, respectively, will help GT continue its explosive growth by providing counsel on global edtech strategy, platform design, lean content development, and forming strategic partnerships.

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Ken will help us refine our partnership strategy, product roadmap, and value proposition as we continue to serve both large and small publishers and educational institutions. He will be a key asset to GT, and the team is very excited to have him onboard.

Brooks has held leadership roles in content management operations helping publishers and education technology companies realign their organizations, processes, and technology to address disruptions to their markets, products, and business models.

Over the course of a 30-year career, Brooks has established himself as one of the top industry experts and a strong advocate for what he has labeled “Lean Content Development,” which optimizes content creation, production, and distribution processes to lower production cost, accelerate time to market, and enhance the operational agility of education publishing companies.

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“Having worked in senior-level roles at some of the leading education publishers, I’ve seen firsthand the operational and change management challenges that these organizations face. However, the sense of urgency amongst publishers to address these challenges now is something I have not seen before. GT provides the best suite of tools in the market to assist publishers with evolving their internal content development operations to meet their customers’ demands and changing market dynamics,” said Brooks. “Working with GT over the last 12 months, I’ve been very impressed with how their platform significantly accelerates time to market, enhances product market fit, and inspires content and product teams to work on higher value add items, ultimately leading to higher quality content and better learner outcomes. So, I’m thrilled to work with Gjergj and his team to help take GT to its next level of growth.”

GT’s award-winning end-to-end content management platform helps organizations collaboratively create and distribute content at scale. The comprehensive platform streamlines the process of creating digital and print products for multiple end-user audiences from a single workflow. Sophisticated tools enable customers to efficiently reuse content and concurrently assemble product versions for multiple audiences, such as students and instructors, and simultaneously publish or refresh content to any courseware, Learning Management System (LMS), application, or other digital or print channel.

“This has been the most exciting time for GT as the demand for our platform has never been higher,” said GT President and CEO Gjergj Demiraj. “Ken’s advice has been significantly helpful over the past months with expanding our strategic partnerships and anticipating customers’ needs. In this new role, he will help us to refine our partnership strategy, product roadmap, and value proposition as we continue to serve both large and small publishers and educational institutions. He will be a key asset to GT, and the team is very excited to have him onboard.”

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Ad.net Hires Industry Veteran Brandon Caudill as Senior Vice President of Business Development

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Ad.net, a leading provider of digital performance advertising through intent-driven marketing for brands and agencies, today announced the hiring of Brandon Caudill as Senior Vice President of Business Development. In his newly appointed role, Caudill will grow the supply side of Ad.net’s business with a focus on traditional media companies. Caudill brings his strategic vision to the product innovation and development side, and will report to Jon Waterman, Ad.net’s Chief Executive Officer.

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“As Ad.net continues to establish itself as a performance-driven marketing leader, I am eager to leverage my relationships with supply side and editorial publishers to drive new opportunities and monetization strategies that provide a tangible business impact”

Prior to joining Ad.net Caudill was an early single digit employee at ZergNet, a growing digital media and content intelligence company that works with big-name publishers like AOL, Townsquare Media, and USA Today Sports Media. At ZergNet, Caudill was responsible for growth and adoption of ZergNet’s content recommendation product along with monetization of the company’s portfolio of owned and operated assets. Caudill was part of the leadership team overseeing a growing team of over 150 employees, and his direct experience in the media publishing space will help Ad.net to scale near-term growth and seize new market share.

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“We are excited for Brandon to join us during this pivotal moment in Ad.net’s evolution, and have him lead business development efforts to grow our supply partnerships,” said Jon Waterman, CEO of Ad.net. “Marketers today are increasingly looking at performance-driven ways of boosting ROI, and capitalizing on getting users at the point of intent. Brandon’s seasoned experience and leadership will be a tremendous asset to our team. We are confident his knowledge will allow us to bring new solutions to the marketplace, scale the robust demand stack we have built, and further cement Ad.net as the market leader in user intent-driven ad performance.”

Ad.net has a lengthy track record of productive and long-term relationships with brands and agencies. Caudill’s knowledge and large scale publishing relationships will allow the company to drive a new suite of products that will solve a lot of challenges digital publishers are facing, including the deprecation of third-party cookies.

“As Ad.net continues to establish itself as a performance-driven marketing leader, I am eager to leverage my relationships with supply side and editorial publishers to drive new opportunities and monetization strategies that provide a tangible business impact,” said Caudill. “This is a great opportunity to help build and scale a fast-growing organization, and I am eager to help the senior leadership team drive the company forward.”

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Dialpad Acquires Kare Knowledgeware to Elevate Customer and Agent Experience Through Deep Search and Data Organization

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Dialpad Acquires Kare Knowledgeware to Elevate Customer and Agent Experience Through Deep Search and Data Organization

Powerful artificial intelligence technology from Kare Knowledgeware to enable new self-service, automated engagement and augmented agents in Dialpad Contact Center

Dialpad Inc., the industry leader in AI-powered communication and collaboration, today announced its acquisition of Kare Knowledgeware, a customer experience (CX) platform that optimizes workflow orchestration, knowledge management, analytics and business intelligence. The acquisition and integration of Kare Knowledgeware into Dialpad Contact Center broadens the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) throughout the Dialpad platform to enable conversational AI and elevate both the customer and agent experience.

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“Kare Knowledgeware and Dialpad have very similar DNA, with a passion to pursue the vast possibilities of AI, turn them into reality and leverage the power of AI to revolutionize the CX industry.”

“Dialpad is thrilled to welcome Kare Knowledgeware for both its innovative technology and incredibly talented workforce,” said Craig Walker, CEO, Dialpad. “Kare Knowledgeware and Dialpad have very similar DNA, with a passion to pursue the vast possibilities of AI, turn them into reality and leverage the power of AI to revolutionize the CX industry.”

Kare Knowledgeware improves self-service functionality by organizing unstructured data and automating responses to common customer inquiries, analyzing and administering crucial insight from traffic to drive strategic business decisions. The application of Kare Knowledgeware technology can resolve inbound support traffic handled by Kare by up to 95% and significantly increase online revenue through self-service.

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“Dialpad’s acquisition of Kare Knowledgeware addresses the key innovations happening as companies transform their customer experience strategies,” said Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst of Metrigy. “In our research, the top CX transformation project among 57% of successful companies is investing in self-service capabilities. When companies use AI-enabled, self-service tools like Kare’s, they see a 40% growth in revenue and a 51% improvement in agent efficiency. This is a very powerful acquisition, given all the AI, analytics, and automation capabilities that will complement Dialpad’s current offering.”

Dialpad is investing heavily in self-service functionality and conversational AI to proactively and promptly address customer questions before they escalate to the support-call level with a live agent. The Dialpad-Kare self-service solution will utilize AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to contextually bring websites and knowledge bases to life through AI-powered customer and agent real-time assistance, addressing common customer inquiries with readily-available resources. The Dialpad-Kare solution will recognize more complex issues and automatically route these interactions to live agents, as needed. The application of AI and NLP to animate a company’s knowledge bases positively impacts agent turnover by reducing inbound traffic pressure and placing valuable support data and recommendations at agents’ fingertips.

While the live-agent interaction progresses, Dialpad-Kare will scan and mine the company’s knowledge bases to provide real-time on-screen recommendations to the agent. The seamless integration with Dialpad Contact Center and Voice Intelligence (Vi), offering live transcriptions and a searchable archive of every call, augments and amplifies agent skill levels to make a difficult job easier and create optimal customer interactions. With Dialpad-Kare technology reducing average hold time, improving operational efficiency through self-service and upleveling agent proficiency, callers benefit from a streamlined customer experience due to increased agent availability and effectiveness.

“The Kare Knowledgeware team is excited to join Dialpad, a fast-rising organization dedicated to radically transforming digital customer experiences,” said Tim Porter, Founder and CEO, Kare Knowledgeware. “The unified communication and CX markets are ripe environments for innovation and we look forward to driving both of these industries forward as a key part of Dialpad.”

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The Lead Announces The Direct 60 List: Fashion & Consumer Brand Executives Leading the D2C Pivot

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The Lead Announces The Direct 60 List: Fashion & Consumer Brand Executives Leading the D2C Pivot

The Lead, a research-driven media company announces The Direct 60 List, a recognition of 60 leading executives at heritage and analog D2C brands. The honorees are being recognized for developing and improving direct-to-consumer business models in organizations that have traditionally operated wholesale business models or brands that were already D2C but were not born online. These fearless executives, many of whom had begun to pivot to direct before the pandemic, have been able to rapidly restructure their business models and internal organizations to meet customer expectations, use data effectively, communicate new values, promote rapid design, enhance supply chains and adopt market-leading technology.

Having tracked the direct-to-consumer business model since 2018, through The Foremost 50 List and associated Insights Reports, The Lead has solidified itself as the leading voice on direct-to-consumer business models and is uniquely qualified to identify the executives who are adopting these models and organizational structures on behalf of non-digital native brands. By understanding who the executives are that are leading the adoption of direct-to-consumer, The Lead has been able to identify patterns and trends to forecast where the industry is headed.

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“The digital native D2C brands have optimized a business model that is built on customer experience, data, modern brand values, efficient tech adoption, and a vertically-integrated supply chain. The customer has come to expect this type of brand interaction. With consumers shopping online at a higher rate than ever before, traditional and legacy brands are having to adapt to this model pioneered by the Bonobos and Caspers of the world,” said The Lead Co-Founder, Noah Gellman.

The Direct 60 will be honored both virtually and in person at The Lead Summit-Direct event on October 14th in New York. This invite-only event features The Direct 60 award ceremony, presentation of The Direct 60 Insights Report, vision talks, panel discussions, and more. Over 35 speakers including Liz Hershfield SVP, Head of Sustainability J Crew Group & SVP Sourcing Madewell; Brian Seewald, SVP eCommerce, EXPRESS; Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer, e.l.f. Beauty; Matthew Schiff, VP eCommerce, Marc Jacobs, and Parinda Muley, SVP eCommerce & Innovation, Richemont Holly Briedis, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, Fossil Group; and many more.

The Direct 60 Insights Report peers into emerging trends and identifies winning strategies from these leading executives who are building their companies for today’s direct world. Today’s brands must shift their priorities, reorient internally, and redefine success metrics. This evolution requires adopting new technologies, redesigning processes, and re-energizing the talent pool and The Direct 60 are taking the first steps. The Lead’s research provides clear insight into how leading brands are successfully navigating the challenges of the business model transformation and is at the helm of the shift.

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Private AI Secures $3.15 Million Seed Round to Streamline Privacy Compliance for Enterprises

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Private AI Secures $3.15 Million Seed Round to Streamline Privacy Compliance for Enterprises

Private AI will use the funds on key growth initiatives, including further development of their software platform.

Private AI, a developer of privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools, is pleased to announce that it has secured $3.15 million in seed funding to improve their product offering, expand the team, and accelerate their acquisition of domestic and international customers. The growth financing is led by Microsoft’s venture fund M12 and Forum Ventures, following a sixfold revenue increase since January. Private AI’s customer base now ranges from startups to multi-billion-dollar companies, including financial institutions and conversational AI companies.

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“Companies of all sizes are under pressure to comply with customer data governance regulations and to protect sensitive data. In parallel, business digitization is accelerating, and more customer data unlocks more insights and enhanced AI/ML model training capabilities,” said M12 Principal Priyanka Mitra. “We’re thrilled to support the world-class team at Private AI as they augment their customers’ data redaction and pseudonymization capabilities, improving enterprise security posture without sacrificing business intelligence.”

Joining M12 and Forum Ventures in the $3.15 million heavily oversubscribed seed round is pre-seed investor Differential Ventures, along with new investors Shasta Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, and Parliament Angels, a group of early Twilio employees. The startup has also garnered investments from Ajay Agrawal and Chris Hadfield. The new round brings Private AI’s funding total to date to $3.45 million.

“This round of funding will help us provide organizations and their developers with world-leading easy-to-integrate tools so they can excel in this post-GDPR world,” says Patricia Thaine, CEO of Private AI. “Our partners at M12 and Forum Ventures both have deep expertise in B2B SaaS and developer-focused tools, and their investment and counsel will be key to fuelling our growth.”

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Private AI was started by Thaine, Pieter Luitjens (CTO), and Professor Gerald Penn (Chief Science Officer). Thaine and Luitjens hold Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering, respectively, from the University of Toronto. While experimenting with prototype browser extensions and apps, they realized how susceptible most software and data pipelines were to data leaks or breaches, and how difficult it was to implement adequate privacy safeguards within those workflows. Thus they built a tool to redact sensitive information from text.

What distinguishes Private AI from similar offerings is how easily and securely the company’s software can be implemented. It only takes three lines of code and operates as a black box. Customer tests have shown that Private AI’s system outperforms those of Amazon and Google by significant margins, and are able to operate directly within their clients’ workflows and infrastructure, which prevents sensitive data from ever being shared outside clients’ systems. The company’s state-of-the-art AI models are able to hit greater than 99% accuracy in identifying and redacting personal data across more than fifty different entities (ex. name, address, blood type, zodiac sign, credit card number, etc.) in seven different languages. The AI system performs particularly well on messy, real-world text, such as emails, chat messages and free-text fields in databases.

“Many software engineering teams don’t have strong procedures or processes in place to identify and protect this data,” says Thaine. “Instead, companies often rely on ineffective and outdated systems that don’t work well on messy, real world data, or simply trust their employee onboarding paperwork commitments to protect them.”

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Americans Agree Social Media is Driving Disinformation and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, New Survey Finds

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Thought Industries New Online Academy for Enterprise Learning Built on Industry's Leading 'Headless' LMS Platform

Ethical technology initiative Project Liberty released a new survey, conducted by Echelon Insights, that shows a majority of American voters believe today’s social media companies are spreading disinformation (81%), causing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (54%), and creating more harm than good (61%). Further, a majority do not trust social media companies to protect their data privacy and do not believe companies protect the best interests of their users.

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The survey found strong bipartisan agreement that the government should do more to hold social media companies responsible for the harm they cause to society, yet just 38% believed government regulation would be sufficient. Instead, voters see innovation as a viable pathway, with 64% believing it is possible to build new technology and social media companies that do not harm society.

“Clearly, people recognize the lasting societal harm today’s social media platforms are causing, and they’re looking for a way out,” said civic entrepreneur and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt. “The good news is that we can build technology that better serves society, an approach that most Americans believe is a more effective solution than solely relying on regulation or trusting social media companies to fix existing problems themselves. Project Liberty was born with that vision in mind, and we welcome anyone who shares our commitment to ethical technology to be part of it.”

Next week, McCourt is helping convene influential tech, impact, and cultural leaders at Unfinished Live, a two-day event at The Shed in New York focused on accelerating solutions for a more ethical and equitable internet. The event will feature more than 60 high-profile speakers including Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum; Perry Chen, founder of Kickstarter; Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel, journalists and authors of Out of Office; and McCourt and technologist Braxton Woodham in conversation with Axios reporter Sara Fischer. McCourt will discuss the implications of this polling and share the latest updates on Project Liberty, a visionary initiative aimed at transforming how the internet works and who benefits from the web economy.

Announced in June 2021 with a $100-million investment, Project Liberty aims to create a more equitable civic architecture for the digital world. It includes the creation of a groundbreaking open-source protocol that, by its very design, shifts the ownership and control of personal data from platforms to people. In addition, Project Liberty is establishing a new international institute focused on creating an ethical governance framework for the next generation of the internet.

To access the full Unfinished Live in-person experience, members of the public can purchase tickets online. Virtual programming is available for free.

Key Survey Findings:

  • 81% of American voters agree today’s social media companies help spread disinformation.
  • 61% of American voters agree today’s social media companies cause more harm to society than good.
  • 52% of American voters do not believe social media companies follow rules that protect the best interests of users.
  • Only 34% of American voters trust today’s social media companies to protect their data privacy.
  • 54% of American voters agree today’s social media companies are causing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
  • 74% of American voters agree government leaders should do more to hold social media companies responsible for the harm they cause to society.
  • Only 38% of American voters believe government regulation will be sufficient to stop the harm to society caused by today’s social media companies.
  • 64% of American voters agree it is possible to build new technology and social media companies that do not harm society.
  • 62% of American voters believe innovation can create technology and social media companies that cause less harm to society.
  • 55% of American voters believe they, as social media users, should be allowed to profit from their personal data.

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Persona Closes $150 Million Round Led by Founders Fund To Scale the World’s First Trusted Identity Infrastructure

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Persona Closes $150 Million Round Led by Founders Fund To Scale the World's First Trusted Identity Infrastructure

Persona, the trusted identity infrastructure company built to manage customer identities from end to end, announced today that it has closed a $150 million Series C funding round—less than six months after its $50 million Series B round. This latest round is led by Founders Fund, with participation from Meritech Capital Partners, BOND, and existing investors Index Ventures and Coatue Management. The new capital brings the company’s total amount raised to $217.5 million, with a valuation of $1.5 billion.

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“Identity is at the core of every business, whether you’re a bank verifying an account holder, a marketplace corroborating sellers, or a company onboarding new employees,” said Rick Song, CEO, Persona. “But identity isn’t a one-off transaction — it’s a relationship. With Persona’s identity infrastructure, businesses can go beyond verifications and build trust throughout the customer lifecycle by offering a safer, faster, and more tailored experience for each individual.”

Persona’s trusted identity infrastructure gives businesses the building blocks they need to securely collect, verify, and manage individual’s identities, along with automation and orchestration tools to streamline the entire process end to end. Its highly flexible and configurable solution enables businesses to tailor identity processes, provide a consistent brand experience, and personalize the user flow based on their risk tolerance, use case, and customer base.

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This degree of configurability allows Persona to partner with any type of business, including prominent high-growth companies such as Square, DoorDash, Coursera, Robinhood, Gusto, BlockFi, Sonder, Brex that rely on Persona to meet compliance requirements, fight fraud, and build trust and safety.

This announcement comes on the heels of significant momentum for Persona, marked by revenue and customer growth, product innovation, and industry recognition. In the last year, the company grew revenue 20x and experienced an over 5x increase in its customer base. The company also announced its Workflows tool, a flexible, intuitive, and powerful way to automate identity processes for any use case, and was recognized as one of the 100 best companies to work for by Fortune Magazine.

The new financing will help drive the next phase in Persona’s growth, as the company expands its team, extends the offering within its identity infrastructure, and furthers its vision of a ubiquitous identity layer that makes the internet safer, more trusted, and more accessible.

“Persona is fast becoming the market leader in the identity space,” said Napoleon Ta, Partner, Founders Fund. “We’re confident that Rick and Charles will fulfill their vision of delivering the trusted identity layer for the entire internet. Founders Fund is thrilled to support Persona in scaling to meet global demand.”

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RallyUp Reimagines Fundraising Events with Launch of New Giving Platform; Enables Organizations to Tap Growing Micro-Philanthropy Trend in Shifting Hybrid Events World

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2021 Fundraising Survey Points to Meteoric Rise of GivingTuesday: 59% of Organizations Rely on Event, 76% of Individual Fundraisers Participating for First-Time

RallyUp, a leading virtual fundraising platform, today announced the launch of its new Virtual and Hybrid Events solution, designed specifically for fundraising that lets organizers handle ticketing, livestreaming, donations, and more – all in one seamless, interactive solution suite.

As digitization continues to change everything about how people work, live, and interact on a daily basis, there has been a paradigm shift in how giving takes place, with younger generations now increasingly interested in micro-philanthropy. While individual donation amounts may be getting smaller – cause-based awareness, mobilization, and the sheer volume of donations are rising. However, without the tools and technology to capitalize on this shift, organizations will miss out on a new audience of donors.

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“The traditional in-person gala is still important in the context of fundraising, but it’s not where the majority of giving is happening today. Today’s donors are part of a new hybrid world, where offline and online meet, and they want to be able to participate in giving events with the same flexibility they approach the rest of their lives,” said Steve Bernat, CEO, RallyUp. “But this changing face of fundraising wouldn’t be possible without technology to improve the giving experience. If organizers don’t adopt new solutions now, they’ll lose significant opportunities to raise more money in this shifting world, and may even risk losing their donor audience altogether.”

Until now, event organizers have been forced to juggle disparate fundraising solutions for ticketing, livestreaming, donations, and more if they wanted to capitalize on the virtual or hybrid event experience. Organizers often lose days or weeks trying to evaluate the right apps and services they hope will appeal to donors. During a live event, however, it’s chaotic to stitch mismatched solutions together, both for showrunners and for donors. With RallyUp’s Virtual and Hybrid Events solution, non-profit staff and volunteers can free up more time for other important activities in support of their cause.

“At Project Koru’s signature event, Kiteboard 4 Cancer, we rely on the generosity of our donors to help young adult cancer survivors find healing through community and the outdoors.  Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it more challenging than ever for people to meaningfully participate in our cause,” said Beth Peck, Executive Director of Project Koru, and a RallyUp customer. “While the future of charity events is still taking shape in this new hybrid world, we’re excited to use RallyUp’s new livestreaming platform to grow our fundraisers and engage new donors from all over the world.”

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Survey of Industry Leaders Shows Synthetic Data is Essential to Building More Capable AI Models

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Executives believe that synthetic data is key to more efficiently and cost-effectively creating labeled training data.

Synthesis AI, a pioneer in synthetic data technologies, today released a new report in conjunction with Vanson Bourne, a global technology market research firm, highlighting how 89% of technology executives view synthetic data as a key emerging technology to creating more capable models, cutting the cost of data labeling, improving access to data, and reducing the time it takes to build AI models.

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Industry leaders believe that, on average, 59% of their industry will utilize synthetic data in five years, either independently or in combination with ‘real-world’ data. This suggests that synthetic data will play an important role in the development of next-generation AI models.

The survey report, Adapt or Be Left Behind: 89 Percent of Tech Execs See Synthetic Data As a Key to Transforming Their Industry, is based on a survey of 100 senior technology executives on their perceptions of synthetic data, potential benefits and barriers of implementation, and what industry leaders think it will take to continue driving the adoption of synthetic data.

Synthetic data refers to computer-generated images and simulations used to train computer vision models. Synthetic data is emerging to be an essential element in building accurate and capable AI models, as it provides developers with vast amounts of perfectly labeled data on-demand.

“AI is driven by the amount, quality, and speed of training data. Synthetic training data is already making waves in several industries including autonomous vehicles and robotics. There is a critical need for more education on the underlying technology and benefits to drive broader industry adoption,” said Yashar Behzadi, CEO and founder of Synthesis AI. “Building core synthetic data capability will be the key to whether or not some companies adapt or fall behind in the future. Synthetic data has the potential to deliver perfectly labeled data on-demand, potentially cutting millions of dollars and months of work related to the current process of collecting, preparing, and manually labeling training data.”

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Andy Thurai, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, said, “Today’s AI models are limited by real-world data for a couple of reasons – collecting real-world data is very expensive, and most companies don’t have the time and resources to collect the volume of data that is required to train models that the tech giants do. The survey results indicate synthetic data is a new market where there is a knowledge gap that needs to be addressed. A blend of the real world and synthetic data will provide the best combination that is impossible to match just by raw data collection. If a model can handle all possible scenarios based on assumptions, then it is ready for real-world scenarios.”

Synthetic data adoption is increasing, but a key to further adoption is enhanced understanding of this emerging technology across the board, all the way from the C-suite to machine learning engineers. Only half (51%) of the respondents were knowledgeable, state-of-the-art synthetic data approaches indicating a critical gap.

Respondents who were aware of recent advances in synthetic data expressed confidence in the technology’s ability to address key issues with current “real-world” data approaches. This indicates that if the knowledge gap is reduced, many more will likely see and understand synthetic data’s benefits.

Prominent barriers to synthetic data adoption are organizational knowledge and a slow buy-in from colleagues.

Other barriers to adoption included:

  • Concerns that models built with synthetic data are not as good as ‘real-world’ data (46%);
  • Difficulty in creating high-quality synthetic data for complex systems (45%);
  • The costs of integration and implementation (42%).

Recent advances in synthetic data are addressing the key identified barriers and the technology is predicted to be a significant enabler of the next generation of AI models.

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Choozle Expands Executive Team to Lead Future Growth & Innovation

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Denver Ad-Tech Company Adds Josh Cariveau, as CRO, and Adam Woods, as CTO, bringing more than 30 years of combined experience to Choozle

Choozle, a self-service programmatic advertising platform, announced the appointment of Josh Cariveau as its new chief revenue officer and Adam Woods as its new chief technology officer to support future growth and innovation of the company.

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“Both Josh and Adam bring tremendous industry and operational expertise to the Choozle team,” said Andrew Fischer, the CEO and Co-Founder of Choozle. “Building on our position as the leading digital advertising platform for mid-sized marketers, we are excited to leverage Josh and Adam’s leadership to drive overall innovation and growth..”

With nealy than 20 years of experience in media and advertising technology, Josh will oversee the development and execution of Choozle’s revenue operations including sales, client service/solutions, demand generation, and strategic partnerships to lead the next chapter of Choozle’s growth and overall market leadership.

Prior to joining Choozle, Cariveau held various positions at SpotX (now part of Magnite), most recently as the President of the North America and Asia Pacific divisions overseeing the platform sales & global operations teams. “I am excited to be joining an innovative growth stage company with incredible assets and experience in buy-side advertising with a clear path to owning significant market share ownership of the mid-market. I believe the market is ripe for innovation on the technology side for mid market agencies and brands and intend to drive success via automation and services to help advertisers achieve their goals.” said Cariveau.

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In his new role at Choozle, Woods drives both product and technology strategy and execution of the Choozle self-service advertising platform that drives positive business outcomes for thousands of global clients. Previously Woods was at Wunderman Thompson Data since 2011 and was leading teams that built out an identity graph that was used across planning, media targeting, measurement and designing customer experiences for a significant number of advertisers working in all of the WPP agencies.

Before moving to Wunderman Thompson Data, Woods was the Director of Engineering at StoneRiver.  He helped to deliver a full system rewrite of StoneRiver’s enterprise collection of insurance software for policy, claims, billing, and worker’s compensation across the entire property and casualty space.

“I am relentless in achieving exceptional business value by taking the time to deeply understand customer needs and applying transformative technologies to achieve scalable solutions,” said Woods. “Building on Choozle’s current momentum, I know we will achieve great things at Choozle and I look forward to working with their exceptional team.”

Since its inception in 2012, Choozle has been a pioneer in the self-serve digital advertising industry with its leading platform for advertising agencies and brand direct marketing teams. In 2021, Choozle released additional platform enhancements and solutions to provide additional value to over 4,000 global advertising partners.

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Zonos Raises $69 Million Series A Led By Silversmith Capital Partners to Democratize Cross-Border Sales Amid Global Commerce Boom

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As cross-border ecommerce grows at twice the rate of domestic, Zonos enables international market penetration with world-class APIs to auto-classify goods and calculate accurate total landed costs on international transactions

Zonos, the global technology leader for cross-border commerce, announced today a $69 million minority investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners, a Boston-based growth equity firm, with additional participation from individual investors including Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium, Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight, Austen Allred, co-founder and CEO of Lambda School, Josh James, founder and CEO of Domo, and David Elkington, founder of InsideSales.

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“We will continue to transform how cross-border commerce happens by building world-class APIs to connect the world through trade.”

As Zonos’ first outside capital since its founding in 2009, the investment will support the company in delivering on its mission to create trust and transparency in global trade. The company created the shipping carrier-agnostic cross-border category, which aims to solve problems through technology, not shipping. Zonos simplifies cross-border sales for businesses worldwide through proprietary software that is powered by the company’s global trade data expertise. Zonos integrates with a business’ existing infrastructure via APIs, apps, and plugins which automatically classify goods and accurately calculate the total landed cost or final price a consumer pays for an item on an international purchase.

The investment will fuel Zonos’ growth in key business areas, including product development, go-to-market, and worldwide team expansion. The company profitably tripled its team size to over 100 employees since early 2020 and is on track to continue at an accelerated pace as it grows its footprint in the burgeoning technology hub in Southern Utah.

“We are on a mission to create trust in global trade. Trust comes through transparency. Transparency is only achieved when global trade expertise is disseminated to users through technology,” said Clint Reid, Founder and CEO of Zonos. “We will continue to transform how cross-border commerce happens by building world-class APIs to connect the world through trade.”

Global cross-border ecommerce currently totals $300 billion and is growing at twice the rate of domestic, despite the friction of additional country and commodity-specific duties, taxes, and import and shipping fees. The Zonos platform eliminates those friction points, opening global commerce to merchants anywhere in the world. The company currently provides millions of landed cost quotes to thousands of businesses across the world every day.

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Historically, most global ecommerce and logistics providers controlled international sales by providing duty and tax calculations only when coupled with their single shipping solution, limiting merchants’ options. After years of frustration working in the logistics industry, Clint Reid started Zonos with the goal of helping merchants capitalize on the huge opportunity available through international expansion.

“I am incredibly grateful for the team and what we have built with limited resources,” said Clint Reid. “We have always aimed to be a great company, not necessarily a big one. This funding is just the next step in the many we are taking to build a company with great products and great people. We see this as validation of what we’ve built over the past 12 years and will accelerate our growth. Silversmith is a firm that shares my vision of changing the world with technology and I cannot think of a better partner for the next step in our journey.”

“We founded Silversmith to partner with entrepreneurs like Clint, who have lived their customers’ problems and are driven to solve them,” said Todd MacLean, managing partner at Silversmith Capital Partners. “That Zonos was able to bootstrap their way to this leadership position speaks to that understanding. It also speaks to the fact their solution helps customers capitalize on the inherent demand that exists in an increasingly borderless world. While their building blocks are data-driven APIs, at the end of the day, Zonos is in the trust business. That’s a great place to be and we are thrilled to be Zonos’ partner for the next phase of the journey.”

As part of the transaction, Todd MacLean has joined the Zonos Board of Directors along with co-founders Clint Reid and Daniel Johnson. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to Silversmith Capital Partners and Goodwin Procter served as legal counsel to Zonos.

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Constructor Raises $55M to Transform Search and Discovery Capabilities for Online Retailers

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Constructor Raises $55M to Transform Search and Discovery Capabilities for Online Retailers

Record 233% YoY Revenue Growth Finishes with Investment Round led by Silversmith Capital Partners Catapulting the Company’s Next Phase of Growth

Constructor, the leader in eCommerce search and product discovery solutions, today announced a $55M Series A funding round led by Silversmith Capital Partners on the heels of more than tripling its ARR year over year and partnering with leading retailers like Sephora and Backcountry.

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The round also includes a lineup of investors who are experts in the space, including: David Fraga, former President of InVision, who will be joining Constructor’s board; Kevin Weil, former Head of Product at Twitter and Instagram; Jason Finger, founder of Seamless; Carl Sparks, former CEO of Travelocity; Robyn Peterson, CTO at CNN; Dave Heath, Founder of Bombas; Ryan Barretto, President at Sprout Social; Melody Hildebrandt, EVP Engineering and CISO at Fox; Zander Rafael, Co-Founder of Better.com; and Seth Shaw, CRO at Airtable. Also participating is the Cap Table Coalition, which expands opportunity for traditionally underrepresented investors.  As part of the investment, Silversmith General Partner Sri Rao will also join Constructor’s Board of Directors. 

Constructor today announced a $55M Series A funding round led by Silversmith Capital Partners

Online retailers have been playing catch-up to Amazon for years, while having to use commodity, one-size-fits-all software not built for ecommerce. As e-commerce continues to grow in importance — in 2020 alone, more than two billion people purchased goods and services online — personalized product discovery and search that’s tailor-made for ecommerce and powered by artificial intelligence has become more and more critical to delivering a competitive customer experience.

“Constructor is the only product discovery platform built from the ground up to learn from the actions of shoppers, without ever collecting personally identifiable information, to improve their discovery experience as they shop,” said Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and Founder of Constructor. “We’re incredibly proud of the real, measurable wins every one of our retail customers have seen both in revenue and user experience after implementing Constructor, all while doing the right thing on privacy. We’re already delivering the biggest lifts in the industry, but the most exciting part is how much better the discovery experience can get with this new investment.”

“Poor search and discovery has been the industry standard for too long,” said Finkelshteyn. “Retailers are tired of being promised AI they can’t see and personalization that doesn’t live up to its marketing hype, and which isn’t actually useful to customers.”

“Constructor is our trusted product discovery partner for its unmatched results, analytics, and true partnership,” said Venkatesh Ananthanarayanan, VP of Engineering at Backcountry.com. “Building search and discovery in-house today is expensive from the standpoint of both people management and infrastructure hosting. It’s now abundantly clear eCommerce companies like ours get much better user experiences and ROI from using solutions like Constructor compared to reinventing the wheel in-house. Even more importantly, while competitors struggle to solve yesterday’s search problems, leveraging Constructor enables us to build on top of it and create the truly unique, personalized, and differentiated experiences of tomorrow. Best of all, the service is easy to test, so we know for certain that Constructor is returning much more revenue to us than what we pay for the service.”

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Google pioneered personalized and contextualized search results and proved how important search is to users, but was never able to deliver the same experience for site search, sunsetting and shutting down their site search solution in 2017 and forcing its customers to switch to other solutions. Within the retail space, Amazon has held the upper hand, popularizing many of the product discovery experiences that customers have come to expect, but that other retailers have struggled to deliver. With Constructor’s new funding, it plans to continue to change that dynamic by doubling down on pioneering new product discovery and search standards and making them available to the entire industry.

Constructor’s AI-powered platform offers a complete set of discovery tools including search, autosuggest, browse, recommendations, and collections. Each tool collects data, learning in real-time from each query and user to optimize for customers hundreds of millions of times every day. Constructor is the only product discovery tool on the market that doesn’t force you to blindly trust the AI. Customers have complete visibility into how Constructor algorithms rank products, all while giving customers full control over what their customers see for any query. 

“Constructor has built a search and discovery platform that is truly making a difference for enterprise retailers. They are providing customers with comprehensive and optimized search and discovery that is unmatched in the market,” said Sri Rao, Constructor Board Member and General Partner of Silversmith Capital Partners. “We are excited to partner with the Constructor team as they continue to revolutionize search and discovery capabilities for retailers across all platforms.”

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Canvas GFX Joins Siemens Digital Industries Software Solution Partner Program as a Software and Technology Partner

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Canvas GFX Joins Siemens Digital Industries Software Solution Partner Program as a Software and Technology Partner

New agreement enables Canvas GFX to offer customers of its Canvas Envision visual communication and collaboration platform a direct connection to Siemens’ Teamcenter PLM solution

Canvas GFX, Inc., the leading provider of visual communication solutions to the manufacturing and technical industries, today announced it will provide a direct connection to Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio, a comprehensive and integrated portfolio of software and services, with its Canvas Envision solution.

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Canvas GFX may now offer Canvas Envision customers a direct connection with Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Teamcenter® portfolio, the world’s most widely used product lifecycle management (PLM) software.

Envision, launched in July this year, is the visual communication and collaboration solution developed to power a new approach to product documentation. It allows everyone from engineers to marketing and sales teams to easily create, share, and collaborate on interactive digital documents that visualize the latest 3D CAD models, optimizing workflows and minimizing delays and stale data issues which can have a measurable economic impact.

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“Canvas GFX is excited to join Siemens Digital Industries Software’s partner community. The strength of our two organizations working together will deliver significant value to our customers,” said Patricia Hume, CEO, Canvas GFX.

“We are pleased that Canvas GFX has joined the Siemens Solution Partner Program as a Software & Technology Partner. Canvas Envision provides our customers complementary solutions that add value to their PLM software investment,” Pete Lamoureux, Senior Technical Director and head of Partner Management, Lifecycle Collaborations Services, Siemens Digital Industries Software.

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Zype Acquires MAZ Systems to Extend Leading Video API and Infrastructure Platform with No-Code TV and Mobile App Publishing Framework

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Zype Acquires MAZ Systems to Extend Leading Video API and Infrastructure Platform with No-Code TV and Mobile App Publishing Framework
Media and content businesses can deliver and monetize advanced streaming applications with integrated, best-in-class capabilities

Zype, the leading video API and infrastructure platform, today announced it has acquired MAZ Systems, a leading OTT app publishing platform for connected TV and mobile devices. With MAZ, Zype adds no-code OTT TV and mobile app automation to help enterprise video publishers create streaming experiences for the billions of people who watch streaming video every day. The combination of the companies brings Zype to more than 80 employees on four continents. The company now supports over 900 video apps and playout channels available to over 2 billion people worldwide.

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“Streaming video content is now essential for enterprises to engage audiences anywhere, anytime and on any device,” said Ed Laczynski, CEO of Zype. “Adding MAZ’s best-in-breed TV and mobile app publishing and automation will help enterprise video publishers design  cross-platform apps from a single configuration. Our research shows that 92%  of organizations underestimate the amount of manual work required to create and manage video products, and we are excited to add these capabilities to better connect the world’s streaming video and viewers.”

With MAZ, Zype now supports automated app publishing across all major mobile, tablet, connected TV, web browsers, and gaming console devices, including iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung Tizen, Vizio, LG, Android TV, and Xbox.

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According to MAZ systems CEO, Shikha Arora, “Our philosophy for the acquisition was to extend our capabilities beyond the OTT apps and mobile space, providing a deeper and more robust set of solutions to both MAZ and Zype’s customers, and most importantly to invest in innovation in the video ecosystem with a larger team of engineers, product, and sales experts who share a common set of values and goals.” Arora will join the Zype leadership team and continue leading the MAZ group and help Zype’s innovation strategy going forward.

The acquisition demonstrates Zype’s commitment to an open and connected video ecosystem with its modular approach. Video publishers can leverage the Zype API and MAZ automation along with their choice of online video platform, encoding, CDN, or video player, and integrate with their choice of ad-serving, payment, and data management platforms.

“As a long-time Zype customer and video publisher, I’m excited to see MAZ join the Zype product family,” says Kristen Gray, President of Konami Cross Media NY. “Enterprise content publishers will benefit from access to more endpoints, with integrated advertising and subscription connectivity along with Zype’s massive scale video streaming capabilities.”

MAZ customers will continue to have access to all products and services, in addition to Zype’s full-stack video API and infrastructure, including Zype’s Playout, CRM, and CMS solutions.

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