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Velocity Global acquires Shield GEO in second growth transaction this year

Velocity Global

Company continues to scale leading global work platform Follows acquisition of iWorkGlobal in April Combined company serves more than 1,000 brands and over 7,000 supported employees this year DENVER, July 13, 2021 — Velocity Global continues to scale its leading global work platform with the acquisition of Shield GEO, an established global Employer of Record (EoR) provider. This is Velocity Global’s second acquisition this year, after it acquired iWorkGlobal in April. The company deployed capital from the $100 million growth investment from FFL Partners announced in April to complete the transaction. Terms of the deal were not announced. Velocity Global adds scale to its global work platform that simplifies the employer and employee experience. The platform combines the company’s cloud-based workforce management technology, personalized expertise, and unmatched global scale. Users access automated technology as well as partner with a dedicated experience team for individualized solutions and expertise. As the largest global EoR in 185 countries and all 50 United States, Velocity Global manages a client’s workforce by providing in-country and in-state compliance, payroll, and benefits for the supported employees. The company also offers Independent Contractor Compliance to assess a workforce and Agent of Record (AoR) to streamline payments to contractors globally. “For the last seven years we built our platform to support how and where work gets done. This now allows us the strategic position to scale up to meet the accelerated demand from the shifting workforce,” said Ben Wright, Velocity Global founder and CEO. “Both sides of the employment equation -- employers and employees -- fundamentally changed in the last 18 months. It’s not just about working from anywhere, it’s about how to recruit, how to retain employees, how to grow revenue, and how to manage a newly empowered work-life balance.” The “future of work” or gig economy is worth $4.5 trillion according to a 2020 report from Staffing Industry Analysts. “Velocity Global’s continued profitable organic growth sets the foundation for further scale through strategic acquisitions,” said Cas Schneller, FFL Managing Partner. “Both of the company’s recent acquisitions were of profitable, strong businesses at a time when scale is needed to match the market. Velocity Global strengthens its leadership position in the future of work.” The combined company serves more than 1,000 brands and over 7,000 supported employees this year. Velocity Global is registered in all 50 United States and continues to grow its footprint to include 50 wholly owned foreign legal entities in the most desired international markets by year’s end. “We share a proud history of organic growth, and now was the time to combine the global reach of Shield GEO with that of Velocity Global, and deliver an even greater experience that the market is demanding,” said Duncan Macintosh, Shield GEO co-founder. “This combination multiplies the growth opportunity for our team.” “We have known Ben and Velocity Global for a long time and we’ve always viewed our industry similarly, especially in terms of how we service our customers and the employees that we support for them,” said Tim Burgess, Shield GEO co-founder. “Delivering a great human-focused customer experience is important to all of us. We are excited by what our combined teams can do together.” Shield GEO is based in Hong Kong with entities in the U.K. and Australia, and a global remote team. The combined company welcomes all 75 Shield GEO employees and is led by Wright under the Velocity Global brand. Burgess and Macintosh will support the integration of Shield GEO into Velocity Global. ABOUT VELOCITY GLOBAL Velocity Global accelerates the future of work beyond borders. Its global work platform simplifies the employer and employee experience through cloud-based workforce management technology, personalized expertise, and unmatched scale. As the largest global Employer of Record (also known as International PEO) in 185 countries and all 50 United States, more than 1,000 brands rely on Velocity Global to build global teams without the cost or complexity of setting up foreign legal entities or state registrations. The company offers additional services including Independent Contractor Compliance to assess a workforce, and Agent of Record (AoR) to streamline payments to contractors. Velocity Global was named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall. Founded in 2014, the company has hundreds of employees in 27 countries. For more information visit velocityglobal.com. Contact Details Velocity Global John Hall +1 720-650-4348 news@velocityglobal.com Company Website https://velocityglobal.com/

July 13, 2021 05:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time

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25-Year Independent Printing Business Custom Printing Converts to International Minute Press Franchise in Nampa, Idaho

Minuteman Press International Inc

Mike Cutler started selling print out of his garage in 1996. Over the next 25 years, Mike built a successful printing business that averaged over $1 million in gross sales over the past 5 years. Mike shares his experience in attempting to sell his independent printing company Custom Printing on his own for six to eight months and reveals how Minuteman Press International was able to step in to help him successfully sell the business. History of Custom Printing Mike says, “Custom Printing was a true family business I built from the ground up. I learned the printing trade through my father, who was a line and typesetter dating back to the 1950s. After starting the business in 1996, I quickly out-grew my garage and opened my first retail location in 1998. At the time, my specialties were thermography, offset printing, and stationery (envelopes and forms). By 2006, we out-grew the original location and expanded to a 6,000 sq. ft. facility. Between 2006 and 2014, I completed eight acquisitions to expand my business. The companies I acquired were in the areas of large format printing and signs, lithography, trophies, and reprographics.” Mike continues, “In 2015, we expanded even more, giving us 8,200 sq. ft. of space to work with. When the pandemic hit in 2020, we actually excelled and recorded our biggest sales year operating as an essential business. At the time of the sale, we had nine full-time employees and some part-time staff. Our 5-year average was $1.2 million in yearly sales.” Selling the Business By June 2020, Mike decided that it was time to sell Custom Printing. At first, he was asking different colleagues and people he knew. However, Mike quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be easy. He says, “I tried to sell the business that I worked so hard to build for six to eight months on my own. I was also preparing to let it go at a very undervalued price as I couldn’t find the right people to buy the business and I found many of them were time-wasters and tire-kickers. On top of that, when I consulted with a business broker, they were asking me for 10% off the top of the sale, and they also wanted a percentage of my lease agreement.” After experiencing these challenges on his own, Mike turned to Minuteman Press International to help sell his printing business. “One of the franchisees I knew locally in Idaho referred me to Chris Jutt, Minuteman Press International Regional Vice President. After our first phone call, I felt confident that Chris had the ability, drive and connections to make this dream a reality for me. Our meetings were always super easy going and comfortable. Chris took all the pressure off of me and said to focus on my successful business and he would do the rest. That is just what he did.” Before meeting with Minuteman Press International, Mike even went as far as to get a professional valuation of his printing business. He shares, “When I knew I was going to be selling, I made sure to get the shop ready. I made sure my financials were in proper order, I kept up with equipment maintenance and repairs, and I kept running and growing my business. Just to get a valuation of my business, I spent $3,000 to get it done professionally. Minuteman Press International did this for free and came up with the same number. That really impressed me and reassured me that the sale of Custom Printing was in capable hands.” “We set a price for my independent printing business that was significantly higher than I anticipated, and Chris Jutt recommended some terms. Within one week, I had several very interested parties. Chris found the perfect people to purchase my business – James and Sheryl Wisler – that will continue what I started some 25 years ago. Minuteman Press International knew that the most important things to me were my long-term employees, my clients, and the reputation I had worked so hard to build. Chris found buyers that valued the same things. He and the entire team at Minuteman Press International delivered on all of my expectations and exceeded in most of them. Looking back, if I knew this was going to be this easy, I would have contacted him years ago.” -Mike Cutler, independent print operator, Custom Printing (now International Minute Press, Nampa, Idaho ) Transition to New Owners After the sale of his business, Mike quickly realized how beneficial it was to have the team at Minuteman Press International assist with all aspects of the transition to the new owners. He shares, “At first, I was apprehensive about how the transition would go. I was immediately relieved when I saw how Minuteman Press International took the reins to teach and train James and Sheryl. We are only two and a half weeks into the transition phase, and already I feel like I am not needed as much as I thought I would be. My employees are in great hands, my clients are being taken care of, and James and Sheryl are doing a fantastic job.” He adds, “The entire team both here locally and at their corporate headquarters has been phenomenal. No matter who I’ve talked to or worked with during this entire process, everyone has been professional as well as instrumental in making this happen. It’s a win-win situation all around.” “The smooth transition has reassured me that it was the right move to sell my business with Minuteman Press International. They have the right plan, the right experience, and everyone has been incredible to the very last detail. In my acquisition experience, nothing has ever been as easy as this. I had everything to gain and nothing to lose, and there were absolutely no hiccups along the way. I would easily rate my experience as 10/10.” -Mike Cutler Advice to Other Sellers When asked what advice he would give to other print shop owners looking to sell, Mike answers, “Don’t even waste your time trying to do this yourself. When you try to sell on your own, there are so many bottleneck issues and you will likely undervalue your business. I couldn’t find the right buyers on my own and I had to spend too much time to meet with people repeatedly while still running my own business.” Mike concludes, “Minuteman Press International alleviated the bottlenecks and came forward with qualified buyers who were ready to write the check for the right price. I am 100% satisfied beyond my expectations. This was a total team effort by everyone, and they all came through for me.” Contact Minuteman Press International today for a free valuation at no obligation and learn more about how we can help you sell your printing business at no cost to you. Call us at 1-800-645-3006 or visit https://bit.ly/minutemanpressconversions Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

July 12, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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SchemaHero Announces Support for CockroachDB

Replicated, Inc.

SchemaHero today announced support for CockroachDB, making it easier for developers to deploy schema updates to the popular database. Written as both a CLI utility and a Kubernetes Operator, SchemaHero makes database schemas declarative, eliminates the task of creating and managing sequenced migration scripts, and is compatible with all environments in which an application is running. “Managing schemas and migrations is hard,” said Marc Campbell, Replicated co-founder and CTO. “Developers spend hours and sometimes days writing migration scripts. They periodically ‘rebase’ the migrations into a single, flat base. But when upgrading a database version, some of the previous migrations might not be valid. Or when shipping a version to an on-prem customer, it’s a slow and brittle process.” SchemaHero solves the migration challenge and can deploy schema updates for CockroachDB databases, whether the database is in the cluster or external. The tool also supports writing a YAML-defined schema and deploying it to the SchemaHero operator, after which the operator can query the current CockroachDB schema, determine the changes necessary, and generate CockroachDB-compatible migration scripts for developers to approve and apply. CockroachDB scales horizontally very quickly and easily. It offers fully-distributed ACID transactions, zero-downtime schema changes, and support for secondary indexes and foreign keys. CockroachDB provides scale without sacrificing SQL functionality. It also supports JSON datatype to store NoSQL data. Get involved Developers can try the free tool by joining the #schemahero channel in Kubernetes Slack, and the Schemahero community meetings. About Replicated: Replicated is the way to deliver multi-prem software. Replicated enables the seamless delivery and management of your Kubernetes applications in customer-controlled environments with a single architecture—whether or not your customers are using Kubernetes. Learn more at Replicated.com. About SchemaHero: SchemaHero is an open-source database schema migration tool that converts a schema definition into migration scripts that can be applied in any environment. Written as both a CLI utility and a Kubernetes Operator, SchemaHero eliminates the task of creating and managing sequenced migration scripts that are compatible with all environments that an application is running in. SchemaHero supports Postgres, Mysql, CockroachDB, Cassandra, and SQLite database schemas. More information is available at https://schemahero.io. Contact Details Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://www.replicated.com/

July 12, 2021 09:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Agora Data to Present at TIADA’s Annual Conference, “Where Is the Money?”

Agora

Agora Data will be speaking and exhibiting in the “Where Is the Money?” panel discussion at the Texas Independent Automobile Dealers Association (TIADA) Conference and Expo being held July 25-27, 2021, in Round Rock, Texas. “Where Is the Money?” overview will be held on Monday, July 26 at 11:30 am for Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) dealers to learn about abundant capital that will change BHPH forever. Chris Barry will talk about Agora’s breakthrough AgoraCapital program that gives BHPH dealers access to capital previously only accessible to the largest auto lenders and finance companies. “One of the biggest obstacles BHPH dealers face is the unavailability of abundant and inexpensive capital to build their loan portfolios,” said Chris Barry, SVP Sales, Agora Data. “The options BHPH dealers currently have come with high interest rates, personal guarantees and restrictive financial covenants. Along with fewer borrowing options, BHPH dealers rarely have the resources for advanced analytics and technology to gain critical business insights about their biggest asset, their BHPH loan portfolio. Agora is changing the entire business dynamic for BHPH dealers.” With AgoraInsights, BHPH dealers have resources to access capital and business information, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. With AgoraCapital, the company created a unique and innovative capital model that gives BHPH dealers equal footing with larger dealerships. A BHPH dealer can go from borrowing money at higher rates to borrowing at lower rates with no personal guaranty. This innovation in auto finance gives BHPH dealers the financial leverage traditionally only enjoyed by large dealerships. Beyond financing, the business insights from Agora give BHPH dealers deep vision into new business possibilities. It is important for BHPH dealers to attend Agora’s “Where Is the Money” presentation at TIADA. Agora’s program promises to revolutionize the business and enable BHPH dealers to prosper and grow in ways they never could before. Agora representatives will be available throughout the conference and at booth #707 in the Kalahari Resorts exhibit hall. About Agora Data, Inc: Founded in 2017, Agora Data’s mission is to provide access to capital for Buy Here Pay Here dealers and small to mid-sized finance companies. Pioneered by Agora Data, AgoraCapital, AgoraCredit and now AgoraPoint all provide critical funding so small- to mid-sized originators can obtain all the cash they need to fuel growth. Agora’s proprietary, radical, AI-infused technology connects dealers and finance companies with the capital markets. Agora Data made history by closing the first-ever Crowdsourced Subprime Auto Securitization in 2020 and followed that up with its second transaction in early 2021. For more information, visit agoradata.com or contact us at 877-592-4672. Contact Details Shelly Vandeven +1 682-282-4130 media@agoradata.com Company Website https://agoradata.com/

July 12, 2021 10:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Edison Interactive Appoints Digital Transformation Changemaker David Cook as Chief Technology Officer

Edison Interactive

Edison Interactive, a leader in connected mobility solutions, today announced David Cook as the new Chief Technology Officer. Having spent much of his career focused on connected vehicles, the addition of Cook reinforces Edison’s mission to deliver customer-centric, connected mobility solutions in planes, trains, automobiles and everything in between. Cook will be responsible for leading the technology team and will oversee every aspect of Edison’s product and engineering efforts. His extensive experience within telematics, connected cars and fleet management will be invaluable in driving the company’s overall technology strategy forward, and ensuring the company is positioned for long-term growth and success. “I’m excited about solving complex issues that will help the company with our core mission of delivering digitally transformative technology,” said Cook on his new role. “Edison has a great culture and great culture brings great people – I’m looking forward to leading and mentoring this team of talented engineers and developers.” Cook held previous leadership positions within Mercedes-Benz mbrace®, Hughes In-Drive®, OnStar, SiriusXM, Verizon, Oracle and Hyundai Blue Link. Additionally, he was the 2012 recipient of Best Telematics Service Provider and a finalist for the TM Forum Business Innovation Award. With his past experience and accomplishments in connected mobility, Cook will be well-positioned to lead Edison through continued digital transformation and provide a fresh perspective on Edison’s core pillars that include infotainment, asset tracking, telematics and monetization. “The addition of David Cook will mark a new chapter for Edison. Our company has experienced rapid growth and evolution since our inception. The chief technology officer is a crucial role within our organization and Cook brings a vast amount of experience that aligns with our mission,” said Jeremy Ostermiller, CEO and co-founder of Edison Interactive. “He will be instrumental in accelerating our innovation and building a world-class team. I’m tremendously excited to see how our technology continues to transform under his leadership and confident he will have an immediate, positive impact not only for our team but our clients and partners as well.” About Edison Interactive Edison Interactive is a connected mobility platform that focuses on enhancing the customer experience in trains, planes, automobiles and everything in between. Edison provides drivers and fleet owners with unprecedented control and continuous communication between vehicles, devices and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). The company is headquartered in Denver, Colo. with remote locations throughout the nation. For more information on Edison Interactive, please visit edisoninteractive.com. Contact Details Edison Interactive Frankie Cervantes +1 720-837-7421 frankie@edisoninteractive.com Company Website http://www.edisoninteractive.com

July 12, 2021 07:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time

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Flying Ship Technologies Secures Sales for Wing-in-Ground-Effect Maritime Vessels

Flying Ship Technologies, Corp.

Flying Ship Technologies, Corp. has signed a $100 million sales agreement with a European customer for the purchase of wing-in-ground-effect maritime vessels. “We’re elated to announce this agreement,” said Flying Ship CEO Bill Peterson. “These vessels will provide fast, low-cost delivery to a wide range of coastal locations around continental Europe and the surrounding islands. Flying Ships will improve the quality of life for consumers by enhancing existing trade routes and opening new routes to deliver fresh foods, medical supplies, and e-commerce, while being carbon-neutral and a fraction of the cost of air freight.” Flying Ships serve an untapped opportunity in the expanding global logistics market for fast, cost effective delivery of time-critical, price-sensitive goods. The global logistics market is growing annually and projected to be more than $15 trillion over the next 5 to 7 years. “This order is the first of many for Flying Ship vessels. As the world looks for ways to reduce greenhouse gases and the logistics market continues to surge, we expect even more interest in Flying Ships as a green alternative to ships, trucks, rail and air freight for inexpensive, fast delivery of goods,” Peterson said. About Flying Ship Technologies, Corp. Flying Ship Technologies, Corp. is developing autonomous ground effect vessels that fly just over the water, are ten times faster than boats, are one-quarter of the cost to maintain and operate compared to planes, provide tens of thousands of additional coastal access points, and are dramatically cleaner for the environment. Our vessels provide fast, inexpensive delivery of time-critical, price-sensitive goods. For more information, please visit: https://flyingship.co/ Contact Details Flying Ship Technologies, Corp. Daniel Stohr +1 703-517-8173 dan.stohr@flyingship.co Company Website https://flyingship.co/

July 08, 2021 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

SHEKEL BRAINWEIGH EXPANDS ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH MONOP OPENING AUTONOMOUS SECTION IN ITS NEW CONCEPT STORE

Shekel Brainweigh

Following the pilot of its first Autonomous Store (“Blackbox” project developed with Casino group), Monop has again leveraged Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division’s Capsule, an autonomous micro market framework, to power its second store. The new store, opening today for the commercialization phase, is located in Rue De Marseille, Paris. The new store deploys a new concept where the Autonomous store section is part of a standard shop during working hours, but once the store closes, the autonomous store section remains open with unique access control. The Autonomous store utilizes several technologies to provide an unattended, contactless shopping experience where shoppers use a mobile payment apps to walk in, select their goods and walk out, providing the retailer with alternate, off-hours, revenue sources. Monop is part of the French retailer, Casino Group and the technology is deployed through the partnership between Shekel Brainweigh and the innovation teams of the Casino group in place since the end of 2019. To enter the autonomous store section, a shopper is identified using a secured payment. The shopper then selects their items, each of which is registered via Shekel’s Product Aware shelves technology and a management system that is automatically integrated to the retailer’s POS. Once the shopping is done, the shopper leaves the store without needing to check out through traditional self-checkout machines or via store cashiers. Since all administrative processes are automated, such as calculating and paying for purchases, shopper’s experience is truly frictionless that streamlines his time in store. Mr. Udi Wiesner, General Manager of Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division: "Monop has been consistently demonstrating its leadership and innovation not only in technology adoption but also bringing to the market new, creative concepts of shopping experience and efficiency to its customers. Shekel brings its Product Aware Technology for product recognition, and together with our partners in the project we provide first of its kind solution for Autonomous ’store in store’ concept, hence spearheading a real revolution in the retail landscape. That would let customers buy 24/7 while experiencing totally frictionless customer journey. Bringing autonomous stores to retail in Europe, as demonstrated in this store, is a very important signal to the market for the adoption and utilization of such solutions, and a highly cost-effective way to get closer to what consumers expect”. The founders, Guy Moshe - CTO & Eliran Vaknin - Head of Products, who have vast experience in retail innovation startups, have been personally involved and led the deployment of this project because of its strategic importance. In a full mode deployment, Shekel's Capsule is a frictionless shopping framework that includes both seamless product recognition and shopper tracking, enabling a fully automated shopping experience. In its full capacity it acts as an autonomous shopping solution, a perfect real time inventory management platform and privacy compliant using Hitachi’s 3D LiDAR shopper-tracking technology, all packed in an affordable end-to-end cost-effective solution. Based on its groundbreaking IoT Load Sensors and advanced AI algorithms, Shekel has developed its Product Aware Technology to enable extremely fast and highly accurate on-shelf product recognition. The integrated 3D LiDAR sensors are able to track multiple concurrent shoppers. About Shekel Brainweigh - Retail Innovation Division Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division provides Product Aware Shelves as the standard of choice for automated product recognition solution to scale up Autonomous retail. Retail Innovation Division - is a young, innovative start-up, yet part of established company, Shekel Brainweigh Ltd., a holding company traded in the ASX: SBW. The company includes Shekel Scales, a well-established technology market leader providing for more than 40 years digital weighing solutions mainly self-checkout systems to the retail markets through leaders such as Fujitsu, Toshiba, Diebold-Nixdorf and others. Following recent years retail market disruption, the company has reinvented itself and established the Retail Innovation Division, evolving to a retail technology leader. Joining retail-tech entrepreneurs, it developed its unique “Product Aware Technology” transforming a retail shelf into a source of enlightening insights with its best in the market product recognition solution, able to identify a product by its weight and location on the shelf. By integrating patented IoT load sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Retail Innovation Division scales up frictionless and autonomous retail. These smart shelves, based on the “Product Aware Technology” – are a perfect solution to drive Smart Vending, Micro markets and Autonomous Micro stores. That enables rich frictionless shopping, 24/7 availability, effective real-time inventory management, operational efficiency and a lot of data insights. To learn more about the company, visit https://www.shekelbrainweigh.com/retail/ Contact Details Rainier, for Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division Jenna Beaucage +1 508-340-6851 jbeaucage@rainierco.com Company Website https://shekelbrainweigh.com/retail/

July 08, 2021 10:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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CSG and Analysys Mason Study Reveals Growth Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls Facing Communications Service Providers Post COVID-19

CSG

DENVER, July 8, 2021 — CSG ® (NASDAQ: CSGS) and Analysys Mason today released the results from their research collaboration examining how well-positioned communications service providers (CSPs) are to meet future enterprise demand for communications and IT services post COVID-19. Key to the report was the finding that a significant 80+% of the largest global enterprises surveyed will consider buying edge, 5G-slicing and private network services within the next five years. Though opportunities abound, disparities between CSP and enterprise views on the importance of technology solutions and billing and invoicing for supplier selection could lead many CSPs to fall short on capitalizing on the post-pandemic economy. The report - Large Enterprises’ Demand for Communications and IT services – surveyed 16 CSPs and more than 200 multinational corporations between February and May 2021. The report focused on three core areas: identifying changing patterns of enterprise demand for communications and IT services; the opportunity for CSPs; and the role of billing and invoicing. Looking more closely at the findings, 92% of enterprise respondents have accelerated their plans to use more IoT, security, cloud and unified communication services. Though connectivity still accounts for the majority of current revenue for CSPs from large enterprises, cloud, security, edge and IoT services have come out on top as the main drivers of future revenue growth. In fact, 66% of enterprises surveyed expect to increase cloud services spending in the next 12 months, reflecting the growing importance of the cloud for business continuity. “There is significant appetite among enterprises to buy additional IT services from their main communications provider,” said Catherine Hammond, principal analyst, Analysys Mason. “Up to 50% of enterprises today say they already buy cloud, security and IoT services from their main CSP and another 30% would consider buying these services from their CSP in future. This poses an opportunity for CSPs to continue investing in leading edge technologies that not only broaden their portfolio but enable them to deliver a one-stop-shop to meet enterprise IT needs.” “5G, cloud and IoT are disrupting the CSP market in profound ways,” said Ken Kennedy, COO and global head of revenue management and digital monetization for CSG. “It’s no longer purely about voice and data. Today’s enterprises look to their communications provider to deliver a broad ecosystem of products and services that will allow them to unleash the full potential of their business. To deliver on this promise, CSPs need to modernize their technology stacks to create scalable processes that enable them to bring new products and services to market faster and lead to new revenue streams.” Additional key report findings include: CSP revenue from IT services is increasing, but not as rapidly as enterprises are increasing their IT spend. This suggests that the CSP share of this spend is falling. Only a quarter of CSPs surveyed report selling services other than voice and data connectivity to the majority of their enterprise customers. Enterprises rated the importance of technical solutions in supplier selection significantly higher than CSPs at 4.4 vs 4.1 on a scale of 1 to 5. This disparity could be a limiting factor that impacts the number of enterprises choosing to buy more IT services from CSPs if CSPs don’t continue to invest in broadening their products and services portfolio. More than 60% of enterprises reported using at least three different suppliers for their core communications services with nearly all enterprises expressing the desire to reduce this number. The most common reason (69%) cited for multiple suppliers was the need for additional services, suggesting an opportunity for suppliers with a wide portfolio to upsell add-on services. Billing and invoicing are considered to be very important in supplier selection by many enterprises – more so than by CSPs. 77% of enterprises rated it as very or somewhat important as compared to only 58% of CSPs. This gap could lead to customer churn as poor billing and invoicing was cited by 21% of enterprises as a reason for not renewing their contract. The proliferation of cloud and ‘as-a-service’ models is creating demand for more flexible billing, and this trend is only likely to increase in future. Many CSPs currently use work-around solutions for new services, which is unsustainable. Automation will be key for CSPs to scale and grow for the future. For more insights into enterprise trends impacting CSPs and to view the full report, visit https://www.csgi.com/resources/large-enterprises-demand-for-communications-and-it-services-survey-results-2021/. # # # About CSG For more than 35 years, CSG has simplified the complexity of business, delivering innovative customer engagement solutions that help companies acquire, monetize, engage and retain customers. Operating across more than 120 countries worldwide, CSG manages billions of critical customer interactions annually, and its award-winning suite of software and services allow companies across dozens of industries to tackle their biggest business challenges and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. CSG is the trusted provider for driving digital innovation for hundreds of leading global brands, including Airtel Africa, América Móvil, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DISH, Formula 1, Hutchison 3 Indonesia, Inmarsat, Mastercard, Maximus, Microsoft, Mobily, MTN, New Leaf Service Contracts, State of California DMV, TalkTalk and Telstra. To learn more, visit our website at csgi.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Copyright © 2021 CSG Systems International, Inc. and/or its affiliates (“CSG”). All rights reserved. CSG® is a registered trademark of CSG Systems International, Inc. All third-party trademarks, service marks, and/or product names which are referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners, and all rights therein are reserved. Contacts: Tammy Hovey Global / North America / Asia-Pacific Public Relations CSG +1 (917) 520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com Kristine Østergaard CSG Europe / Middle East / Africa Public Relations +44 (0)75 0051 8412 kristine.ostergaard@csgi.com John Rea Investor Relations CSG +1 (210) 687 4409 john.rea@csgi.com Contact Details CSG Tammy Hovey +1 917-520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com Company Website https://www.csgi.com

July 08, 2021 06:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time

WellSaid Labs Announces $10M Round Led by Fuse to Build “Voices for Every Brand”

WellSaid

WellSaid Labs, the artificial intelligence text-to-speech technology company, announced a $10 million Series A round led by FUSE, with participation from previous investor Voyager, as well as Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and GoodFriends. The Series A was oversubscribed with interest from VCs given the record year-over-year growth in revenue and incredible customer demand. WellSaid Labs plans to use these funds to drive further AI and product innovation, scale go-to-market functions, and grow the team. With a mission to offer businesses and brands the highest quality Text-to-Speech (TTS) service imaginable, WellSaid Labs empowers content creators and product teams to create engaging voice content for infinite use-cases in streaming services, radio, programmatic advertising, digital marketing, and corporate training content. WellSaid Labs has rearchitected TTS to resolve business’ toughest content development problems and deliver an easy way for content creators — big or small — to develop all their desired content in one consistent voice that represents their brand. WellSaid Labs’ Voice Avatar library provides access to multiple read styles and tones anyone can use for their productions. In addition, brands can create their own AI Voice Avatars to spec — capturing the likeness, style, and uniqueness of the voice needed to tell their stories in exactly the right way. “Plain and simple, WellSaid is the future of content creation for voice," said Cameron Borumand, General Partner at FUSE. "This is why thousands of customers love using the product daily with off-the-charts bottom-up adoption. Matt and Michael have assembled a world-class team and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of the WellSaid journey.” Creating natural-sounding speech from text is considered a “ grand challenge ” in the field of AI and has been a research goal for decades. Over the last three years, WellSaid Labs has consistently researched and developed tremendous breakthroughs in the quality, speed and reliability of neural text-to-speech systems. In June 2020, WellSaid Labs' TTS became the first to achieve human parity for naturalness on short audio clips across multiple voices. "We’ve added AI Voice to the toolkit of thousands of content creators and their teams," said Matt Hocking, CEO of WellSaid Labs. "Our human-parity AI voice can be produced faster than real-time, and updated on-demand. Opening up new and exciting opportunities to 'add voice' where never before perceived possible. AI voice easily ensures every production can be created and updated efficiently at scale." “Content creators or product experience designers were previously faced with difficult tradeoffs between quality and scalability when using TTS tools or human voiceover. WellSaid’s incredible voices, which are accessible through a studio application or a scalable API, removes the need to choose whether you want natural, lifelike speech or infinitely scalable and easily editable voice content. WellSaid provides both and delivers it however your team would like to consume it,” said James Newell, Partner at Voyager Capital. “Creative teams have found it to be extremely useful when they need to produce multiple pieces of high-quality content in a consistent voice in hours instead of weeks.” “Recent developments in TTS technology using generative AI have enabled synthetic voices to sound very human-like, finding exciting new applications for voice including e-learning, advertising and news readers," said Carlos Kokron, Vice President at Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures Americas. “WellSaid Labs provides an industry leading product that generates highly accurate human-like voices. We look forward to working with WellSaid Labs to help fuel the creator economy with human-parity AI voices across mobile and IoT.” "WellSaid's team has applied deep technical expertise to build a platform that enables easy creation and editing of incredibly life-like audio," said Dave Gilboa of Good Friends and co-CEO of Warby Parker. "We see meaningful growth potential in the use of high-quality audio in giving brands the ability to communicate with customers and creators the ability to engage with audiences." WellSaid Studio eliminates the complexities traditional text-to-speech technologies present to creatives — making the production, updating, and publishing of voiceovers extremely simple and cost effective. Product developers access WellSaid Labs’ core AI engine via real time APIs to power up digital experiences with a reliable and scalable voice infrastructure. About FUSE FUSE is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in Pacific Northwest-based companies that are reinventing the modern economy with software. FUSE is committed to supporting the next generation of B2B technology entrepreneurs building category-defining businesses of lasting value. General Partners Kellan Carter, Cameron Borumand and Brendan Wales are joined by Venture Partner and Seattle Seahawks captain Bobby Wagner, as well as Senior Operating Partners John Connors and Satbir Khanuja. Their strategic LP base includes current and former executives at the Pacific Northwest’s top companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Nike, Starbucks, Costco, T-Mobile, Boeing, Avalara, DocuSign, Smartsheet and many more. For more information about FUSE, please visit fuse.vc. About Voyager Capital Since 1997, Voyager Capital has focused on first-round venture investments to help entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest create winning businesses. Built on the team's extensive experience with startups and its exceptional network across the industry, the firm's entrepreneur-centric approach accelerates the pace at which companies can build, execute, pivot and scale. Voyager has $520M under management investing in B2B software, cloud infrastructure, and applications driven by AI and machine learning. With offices in Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, BC, Voyager provides its portfolio the unwavering support and stage-appropriate connections needed to disrupt markets and create sustainable competitive advantage. About Qualcomm Ventures Qualcomm Ventures, acting through Qualcomm Ventures LLC or its affiliated entities, has been making strategic investments in technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world since 2000. As a global investor, we look to help entrepreneurs build revolutionary businesses that reshape the world around us. For more information please visit: www.qualcommventures.com. About GoodFriends Good Friends is a venture capital firm that was started in 2019 by the founders of Warby Parker, Harry's, and Allbirds. Good Friends invests in early stage businesses with a consumer lens. About WellSaid Labs WellSaid Labs is the leading AI text-to-speech technology company and first synthetic media service to achieve human-parity in voice. Creators, product developers, and brands alike power up their stories and digital experiences with a wide variety of voice styles, accents and languages — at scale. For more information go to www.wellsaidlabs.com Contact Details Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://wellsaidlabs.com/

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