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Teads Unveils Creative Consortium Built to Incubate Innovation to Bolster Results for Advertisers

Teads

Teads, the global media platform, today announced the formation of a Creative Consortium, a suite of new omnichannel partnerships to further enhance exceptional creative services and maximize campaign results for advertisers. The new offerings extend Teads’ ability to deliver personalized and engaging ad experiences for advertisers by implementing top-tier creative solutions and cutting-edge technology by collaborating with best-in-class partners such including Perfect Corp, Aryel, Threedium, Atelar, Geneee, Vyde, Stats Perform, SmartCommerce, and Audiostack. As part of the strategic launch, Teads Studio, the company’s in-house creative team, has integrated advanced creative solutions to optimize and repurpose ad content across various digital platforms for its partners, including: AI-Driven Audio Production: Powered by its partnership with AudioStack, Teads is unlocking addressable, high-quality video at scale and utilizing AI-driven audio production - across CTV video or native - to create dynamic, personalized and contextually relevant audio-visual experiences tailored to different languages, locations and audience segments. Real-Time Sports Data Integration: Embedding live sports statistics into ad creatives to enhance engagement among sports fans in partnership with StatsPerform. AR For The Open Web: Introducing immersive AR experiences such as Virtual Try-On (VTO), which significantly enhance consumer engagement and conversion rates in partnership with Perfect Corp, Aryel, Threedium, Atelar and Geneee. Interactive Shopping Solutions: Development of advanced shopping formats, including visualizations, 3D models, dynamic ads, and shoppable scenarios. Conversation Units: Revolutionizes shopper engagement with innovative in-ad chat units optimized for shoppable moments, allowing consumers to interact through a decision tree and select products based on their needs in partnership with Stats Perform. Omnichannel Integrations: Bridging online and offline experiences, enhancing direct response capabilities. Innovative 3D Models: Captivating audiences with engaging 3D ad formats, improving brand recall and interaction rates. Teads’ enhanced creative capabilities have already empowered brands like Nissan, McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Lenovo to expand the delivery of personalized ads across multiple touchpoints, enhance customer interaction, and drive business results. Teads’ cutting-edge campaign with Nissan integrated CTV, OTT, and Mixed Reality (XR) elements to promote the Nissan Qashqai. QR code integration amplified engagement and boosted brand favorability, reaching an impressive 41% of the UK population at least once, with an average frequency of 4.1. "We were thrilled to partner with Teads Studio to craft a cross-screen experience that effectively reached households on the big screen through OTT and integrated a unique VR experience,” said Niels Van Der Burg, Nissan’s director of marketing operations, Europe. “This innovative approach allowed us to showcase the e-POWER technology and the features of the Nissan X-Trail and Qashqai in a truly engaging and immersive manner." Other notable brands leveraging Teads’ enhanced creative offerings via its Creative Consortium include: Both McDonald’s and PepsiCo - McDonald’s and Lays (a part of PepsiCo) are partnering with Teads independently for UEFA Euro 2024, utilizing Stats Perform technology to integrate live stats based on match scores directly into their advertising creative. Lenovo - Lenovo was the first tech brand to launch the Teads Conversational Unit in the US, achieving remarkable results. The Lenovo Conversational Unit recorded a 0.25% interaction rate, representing a 66% increase compared to the benchmark. It also achieved a 28.09% active attention rate, marking a 180% increase over the benchmark, and a 0.18% click-through rate (CTR). “At Teads, we’re laser-focused on helping our partners succeed in today’s landscape by boosting engagement, increasing relevance and maximizing impact across all screens,” said Jonathan Lewis, global head of studio at Teads. “The Creative Consortium directly supports the company’s ongoing mission to be ‘best in glass,’ by partnering with innovative industry-leading creative technology and data vendors empowering us to provide the biggest brands in the world with exceptional creative solutions optimized for omnichannel environments.” About Teads Teads operates a leading, cloud-based, omnichannel platform that enables programmatic digital advertising across a global ecosystem of quality digital media. As an end-to-end solution, Teads’ modular platform allows partners to leverage buy-side, sell-side, creative, data and AI optimization technologies. For advertisers and their agencies, Teads offers a single access point to buy the inventory of many of the world’s best publishers and content providers. Through exclusive global media partnerships, Teads enables advertisers and agencies to reach billions of unique monthly users in brand safe, responsible advertising environments, while improving the effectiveness and efficiency of digital ad transactions.Teads partners with the leading marketers, agencies and publishers through a team of 1,200+ people in 50 offices across more than 30 countries. Contact Details Kite Hill PR for Teads Alexandra Morrison teads@kitehillpr.com Company Website https://www.teads.com/

June 12, 2024 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Yandex develops and open-sources an LLM training tool that saves up to 20% of GPU resources

Yandex

Yandex introduces YaFSDP, a method for faster and more efficient large language model (LLM) training. Potentially saving users hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. Available free. Yandex, a global tech company, recently introduced YaFSDP, an open-source method for training large language models (LLMs). YaFSDP is currently the most effective publicly available tool for enhancing GPU communication and reducing memory usage in LLM training, offering a speedup of up to 26% compared to FSDP, depending on the architecture and number of parameters. Reducing the training time for LLMs through the use of YaFSDP can result in savings of up to 20% in GPU resources. “Currently, we're actively experimenting with various model architectures and parameter sizes to expand YaFSDP’s versatility,” noted Mikhail Khruschev, a senior developer at Yandex and part of the team behind YaFSDP. “We are thrilled to share our developments in LLM training with the global ML community, contributing to increased accessibility and efficiency for researchers and developers worldwide.” The case for YaFSDP LLM training is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. Machine learning engineers and companies that develop their own LLMs invest significant time and GPU resources — which equals money — in training these models. The larger the model, the greater the time and expenses associated with its training. Yandex’s YaFSDP works by eliminating GPU communication inefficiencies, ensuring that training requires only necessary processor memory and making GPU interactions uninterrupted. YaFSDP optimizes learning speed and performance, enabling AI developers worldwide to use less computing power and GPU resources when training their models. For instance, in a pre-training scenario involving a model with 70 billion parameters, using YaFSDP can save the resources of approximately 150 GPUs, which translates to roughly $0.5 to $1.5 million (depending on the virtual GPU provider or platform) in potential monthly savings. YaFSDP’s training efficiency YaFSDP, an enhanced version of FSDP, outperforms the FSDP method in the most communication-heavy stages of LLM training like pre-training, alignment, and fine-tuning. The final speedup shown by YaFSDP on Llama 2 and Llama 3 demonstrates significant improvements in training speed, reaching 21% and 26% on Llama 2 70B and Llama 3 70B respectively. “YaFSDP has shown impressive results on models ranging from 13 to 70 billion parameters, with particularly strong performance in the 30 to 70 billion range,” said Mikhail Khruschev. “Currently, YaFSDP is best suited for widely-used open-source models based on the LLaMA architecture.” YaFSDP isn’t Yandex’s first open-source tool. The company has previously shared several other tools that have become popular with the ML community, including: CatBoost, a high-performance library for gradient boosting on decision trees. YTsaurus, a big data platform for distributed storage and processing. AQLM, one of the most advanced quantization algorithms for extreme compression of large language models, developed jointly by Yandex Research, HSE University, IST Austria, and NeuralMagic. Petals, a library designed to simplify the process of training and fine-tuning LLMs, developed in a collaboration involving Yandex Research, HSE University, University of Washington, Hugging Face, ENS Paris-Saclay, and Yandex School of Data Analysis. Accessing YaFSDP YaFSDP is freely available on Github. – – – – – For Reference During large language model (LLM) training, developers have to efficiently manage three primary resources: computing power, processor memory, and processor communications. YaFSDP conserves the first two, which helps to accelerate the LLM training process. LLM training relies on numerous GPUs organized into clusters — arrays of interconnected graphics processors that can perform the vast number of calculations necessary to train models with billions of parameters. Distributing computations among processors within a cluster requires constant communication, which often becomes a "bottleneck", slowing the training process and resulting in inefficient use of computing power. To overcome this bottleneck, Yandex developers created YaFSDP, a method that improves GPU communication and optimizes learning speed and performance. When combined with Yandex’s other performance-enhancing solutions, the method accelerated the training process by up to 45% for some of its models. YaFSDP works by eliminating GPU communication inefficiencies, which leads to optimized network usage and reduced memory load. It ensures that training requires only necessary processor memory and makes GPU interactions uninterrupted, facilitating further optimizations like minimizing processor communication time. This leads to a significant enhancement in both performance and memory efficiency. The YaFSDP method can be used effectively in transformer-based text generative models with multiple layers (multilayer perceptrons), mostly represented by LLaMA-like models. In a pre-training scenario involving a model with 70 billion parameters, using YaFSDP can save the resources of approximately 150 GPUs. When compared to FSDP, the final speedup shown by YaFSDP on Llama 2 and Llama 3 demonstrates significant improvements in training efficiency. About Yandex Yandex is a global technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. The company’s goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, Yandex has been delivering world-class, locally relevant search and information services and has also developed market-leading on-demand transportation services, navigation products, and other mobile applications for millions of consumers across the globe. Contact Details NettResults Media Team media@nettresults.com

June 12, 2024 08:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Saint Paul Public Housing Agency and Comcast Announce Technology Partnership

Comcast Twin Cities

The Saint Paul Public Housing Agency (PHA) and Comcast today announced they have partnered to provide a WiFi connection to Xfinity's advanced network in all 16 of PHA’s buildings in Saint Paul. The partnership is Comcast’s first collaboration with a Minnesota-based housing agency to provide pre-installed, already on connectivity to the Xfinity network for their residents. More than 2,500 units will be equipped with Xfinity’s fast and reliable network and wall-to-wall WiFi coverage. With Xfinity’s network readily available, residents will not need to schedule a technician to set up services, wait for their modem to arrive or go to an Xfinity Store to collect their equipment. To activate service, residents will only need to call or use the Xfinity App. “Internet access provides connectivity to 21st century infrastructure, equipping our residents with the tools vital to enhancing opportunities for education, employment, and quality of life," said Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. "The collaboration between Saint Paul Public Housing Agency and Comcast empowers our neighbors to realize a brighter future.” Current residents and new residents moving into WiFi ready units can connect to the Internet within five minutes of collecting their keys—making it that much easier to get all their devices up and running. “Access to WiFi isn’t just about connecting devices; for us it’s about connecting PHA residents to opportunity,” said PHA Board Chair Missy Staples Thompson. “Making PHA-owned high-rises WiFi-ready can help residents cross the digital divide and open doors to education, employment, and empowerment. We appreciate this partnership with Comcast that will benefit residents and their communities.” The Xfinity network will be installed in phases. Completion of the first two buildings just occurred, and 14 additional buildings will have WiFi ready units residents can connect to by the end of 2024. About Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information. About the Saint Paul Public Housing Agency (PHA) The PHA administers federal rent subsidies that provide safe, affordable housing to more than 22,000 Saint Paul residents. Almost half of those residents live in the 4,273 affordable homes and apartments that the PHA owns and manages. The PHA also administers the federal rent subsidy program called “Housing Choice Vouchers”, previously known as Section 8. The rental vouchers help 5,243 households pay affordable rents in privately-owned apartments and rental homes. Contact Details Jill Hornbacher +1 651-425-1695 Jill_Hornbacher@comcast.com Company Website https://midwest.comcast.com

June 11, 2024 01:00 PM Central Daylight Time

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NOVUS INK Advisors and Solidus Capital Group Team-up to Serve Growing Transatlantic Commercial Interests of Mid-Market Enterprises

NOVUS INK Advisors

NOVUS INK Advisors and Solidus Capital Group signed a services agreement today to provide integrated senior advisory and execution services to small-and mid-market enterprises amid thriving commercial interests between the United States and Europe. The two firms aim to accelerate client services by combining expertise and resources to support growth into new markets, encompassing management counsel, valuation, performance tracking, board advisory, marketing, communication, public and government affairs. The collaboration will enable NOVUS INK Advisors and Solidus Capital Group to meet the unique needs of global small-and mid-market enterprise clients operating across business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and business-to-government segments. The transatlantic economy is proving remarkably robust in the face of global economic and geopolitical disruptions. No two other regions in the world are as deeply integrated as the United States and Europe, according to the 2024 Transatlantic Economy Report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AmCham EU, Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Transatlantic Leadership Network. The report states: "the $8.7 trillion transatlantic economy employs more than 16 million workers in mutually onshored jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. It is the largest and wealthiest market in the world, accounting for half of total global personal consumption and close to one-third of world GDP in purchasing power. Ties are solid in foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, banking claims, trade and affiliate sales in goods and services, digital links, energy, mutual R&D investment, patent cooperation, technology flows, and sales of knowledge-intensive services." The services agreement will be overseen by a committee chaired by Pia De Lima and Daniel Diaz, NOVUS INK Advisors' Managing Partners, and Andreas Dal Santo, Solidus Capital Group's Managing Director. NOVUS INK Advisors is based in Miami. Solidus Capital Group, affiliated with Atlantic Business Labs, is based in New York. NOVUS INK Advisors is a communication, public and government affairs lobbying firm. NOVUS INK Advisors' practice areas include Corporate, Band and Product Reputation, Business Strategy, Crisis and Reputation Risk, Financial Services, Investor Relations, Mergers & Acquisitions, Brand and Product Marketing Communications Strategy, and Public and Government Affairs. NOVUS INK Advisors is a registered lobbying firm. To learn more, visit: www.NovusInk.com. Solidus Capital Group specializes in management consulting, business valuation, and board advisory services for firms expanding into North America, Latin America, and Europe. It is spearheading an ecosystem of companies, consultants, and subject matter experts with experience from different industries and regions to support corporate and institutional clients' global strategies and growth into new markets. To learn more, visit www.solidus-capital.com. CONTACTS: NOVUS INK Advisors: client.services@NovusInk.com Solidus Capital Group: client.services@Solidus-Capital.com Contact Details NOVUS INK Advisors Client Services client.services@NovusInk.com Company Website https://www.novusink.com/about

June 11, 2024 09:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Room to Roam: ‎The Elephant’s Path to Climate Resilience

News Media Group, Inc.

Contact Details Karl Wayne +1 334-440-6397 karl@newsmg.com Company Website https://newsmg.com/

June 10, 2024 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Comcast Announces Live American Sign Language Interpreting Services at Eight Bay Area Xfinity Store Locations

Comcast California

As part of its ongoing commitment to digital inclusion and accessibility, Comcast today announced the availability of live American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting services at eight Xfinity Store Locations in the Greater Bay Area. Customers who need ASL support can stop into any of the select Bay Area Xfinity Stores, where representatives will utilize ASL Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) to access a live interpreter provided by partner, Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD). The Retail Associate simply taps the app on the store iPad and is connected in moments via video to a live interpreter who can translate from ASL to English and vice versa as the customer and Associate converse. “We’re proud to deliver an inclusive service solution that will help more customers better interact and engage with Retail Associates representing our Xfinity Products and Services, to provide them with a much better in-store experience,” said Thomas Wlodkowski, Comcast Vice President for Accessibility. “I’m also grateful to our partners in California — who are helping to close the digital divide for more members of our disabled community by working with us on a variety of digital equity initiatives.” Comcast launched the ASL VRI service as a pilot in select stores last year; it is the first telecommunications retailer in the country to offer live, on-demand, remote ASL interpreting services in stores to better serve customers. The company is expanding the service to additional stores across the country this year. The eight Xfinity Greater Bay Area stores that offer ASL VRI service include: San Jose: 1068 E. Brokaw Rd. # 50, San Jose, CA 95131 Sunnyvale: 301 W. McKinley Ave. Suite 140, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 San Jose: 1566 Monterey Hwy #20, San Jose, CA 95110 San Jose: 1600 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 Palo Alto: 2825 El Camino Real #100, Palo Alto, CA 94306 Fremont: 43325 Christy St., Fremont, CA 94538 Oakland: 3070 E. 9 th St., Oakland, CA 94601 Dublin: 4104 Grafton St., Dublin, CA 94568 “As part of California School for the Deaf’s mission, we are deeply committed to providing a language rich environment that maximizes communication access in order for our students to lead fulfilling lives,” said Amy Novotny, Superintendent, California School for the Deaf. “Access to technology and connectivity builds confidence and independence, and that’s why we are excited to partner with Comcast on opportunities to close the digital divide for members of our Deaf and hard of hearing community.” The American Community Survey (ACS) estimates that 3.6% of the U.S. population is “deaf or have serious difficulty hearing.” Additionally, according to Pew Research Center, 23% of people with disabilities say they never go online, with 57% saying they do not have a home broadband connection. That’s why, through its Project UP initiative, Comcast is working to address and eliminate the unique barriers to connectivity through a series of efforts, including Internet Essentials, Lift Zones, and skill development and training. In addition to announcing this inclusive retail experience for customers, Comcast donated $60,000 in digital equity grants to community partners, San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, California School for the Deaf, and the World Institute on Disability. These grants aim to broaden the scope of digital inclusion and accessibility to students, families, seniors, and community members. “Assistive technologies are opening doors to greater independence for folks with a range of disabilities,” said Sharon Giovinazzo Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco LightHouse of the Blind and Visually Impaired. “These innovations truly can level the playing field. Comcast has been a valued partner in delivering technologies and supporting our efforts to promote independence, community, and equity for blind and low vision people.” “Diversity, equity and inclusion are the guiding stars of what we do here at the World Institute on Disability, and it is gratifying to see partners, such as Comcast, who also believe that equity and accessibility go hand-in-hand,” said Marcie Roth, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, World Institute on Disability. “Technology continues to evolve rapidly, and we must continue to work together to invest in solutions, which will help support people with disabilities having equal and greater access to products and services in today’s world as well as laying the foundation for greater accessibility for future generations.” About Comcast’s Accessibility Program: For more than a decade, Comcast has invested in making its products, technology, and experiences accessible to the widest possible audience while opening new doors to independence for people with disabilities. These innovations include the Large Button Voice Remote, voted USA Today’s Best Accessible Design remote in 2023, and the Xfinity Adaptive Web Remote. To learn more about Comcast’s groundbreaking accessibility work, visit corporate.comcast.com/accessibility. About Comcast Corporation: Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms, we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information. Contact Details Comcast Calfornia Jon Koriel +1 925-315-2690 jon_koriel@comcast.com Company Website https://california.comcast.com/

June 06, 2024 10:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Kevel Named to Newsweek’s List of the Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces for 2024

Kevel

Kevel has ranked #13 on Newsweek ’sTop 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces® list for 2024. This is the 2 nd annual Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces® list in collaboration with the Best Practice Institute (BPI), a leadership development and benchmark research company. The results were determined after surveying more than 2 million employees from businesses with workforces varying in size from 30 to more than 10,000. The list recognizes companies that put respect, caring, and appreciation for their employees at the center of their business model and, in doing so, have earned the loyalty and respect of the people who work for them. Why is Kevel most loved? Kevel is committed to creating a thriving and diverse community, and it doesn't just show up in their recruitment. By addressing feedback from specific groups, from BIPOC to LGBTQ+ to women, Kevel ensures everyone has the psychological safety to be their authentic selves in the workplace. And with all-staff annual retreats, an international remote-first culture and the opportunity to work on cutting-edge, innovative technology, what's not to love? “We pride ourselves on being a people-first organization where we encourage vulnerability, authenticity and transparency. We aim to build an environment where every employee feels respected, welcomed and heard. We provide autonomy and flexibility, and promote from within to ensure every employee has the opportunity to reach their full potential.” - Mike Kohn Chief People Officer, Kevel How positive workers feel about their future at the company, career achievement, how much employer values align with employee values, respect at all levels, and the level of collaboration at the firm were the five critical areas measured to gauge employee sentiment. In addition, areas such as inclusion, employee wellness, diversity, career development, and company leadership were identified and analyzed in relation to the five critical areas measured. “As workplaces continue to shift, it’s clearer than ever that fostering collaboration, embracing a positive outlook, and aligning values are essential. The companies celebrated on the 2024 Global Most Loved Workplaces® list truly embody these principles. They show us that by championing respect and team oriented outcomes, they’re not just building great workplaces, they’re shaping a brighter future for all.” - Nancy Cooper, Global Editor in Chief of Newsweek Methodology BPI measures five primary areas to determine how employees feel about where they work to create the Most Loved Workplaces® list: the level of collaboration at the workplace, how positive workers are about their future at the company, how much employer values align with employee values; respect at all levels and career achievement. In consultation with Newsweek editors, BPI also considered employee wellness, diversity, inclusion, career advancement, and other workplace and talent development initiatives. To identify the top 100 companies ranked in this Newsweek publication, companies were evaluated and scored as follows: 50 percent of the initial score was based on direct employee responses to BPI's proprietary Love of Workplace Index® assessment. Another 15 percent was derived from analysis of external public ratings from sites such as Comparably, Careerbliss, Glassdoor, Indeed, and Google. The final 35 percent came from BPI’s direct interviews and written responses from company officials. Newsweek then researched every company on the list to determine the final list of 100 companies and their rankings. To view Kevel’s ranking and the full list, visit the Global Most Loved Workplaces® 2024 page. To learn more about the Most Loved Workplace certification, visit https://mostlovedworkplace.com/ and the Best Practice Institute, visit bestpracticeinstitute.org. About Kevel Kevel powers innovative, flexible ad tech infrastructure APIs that fuel its ad serving solutions. It’s unique offering empowers multi-brand retailers to launch differentiated retail media networks that improve the shopper experience while maintaining total control of their first-party data. Kevel believes that every digital retailer should have the capability to scale their own distinct ad platform, just like big tech players like Amazon. Customers like Edmunds, Klarna, Delivery Hero, Leroy Merlin, Slickdeals, and other leading retailers and marketplaces all launched their own retail media network with Kevel. The company has garnered numerous accolades, most recently earning recognition as one of the leading 100 innovative tech start-ups driving the future of brand-to-consumer in 2023 and awarded the MarTech Breakthrough Award for best overall ad tech company in 2022. Learn more at www.kevel.com Contact Details Kevel Jennifer Choo Director of Marketing +1 973-343-8819 jchoo@kevel.com

June 06, 2024 09:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Comcast Directors Refuse to Disclose Political Donations, So Shareholder Does It for Them

NLPC

Ahead of its annual meeting on Monday, June 10, the directors for Comcast Corporation have had their past political campaign donations publicized on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, after the company refused to allow a vote on a shareholder proposal that requested transparency of that information. As the parent of major media organizations that include NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo and Sky, Comcast has an outsized influence on global news reporting and opinion-forming for its massive audiences, predominantly in the Americas and in Europe. Late last year National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), an investor in Comcast, had introduced a shareholder proposal to request the Board to implement a policy in which director candidates each year would be required to disclose their charitable donations and campaign contributions above certain amounts, going back five and 10 years, respectively. Citing several examples of Comcast’s past advocacy in support of controversial political news developments and issues from a left-leaning perspective, NLPC asked for greater transparency about the board’s worldviews via the disclosure of members’ past philanthropic and political donations. “Shareholders are uninformed about members’ ideological and political views,” the proposal stated. “Greater transparency is needed to allow shareholders to know whether our Board suffers partisan capture and therefore the group-think and ideological blinders that have cost some companies dearly in recent years.” However, not wanting shareholders to have the ability to vote on NLPC’s proposal – much less disclose its directors’ charity, candidate and political party support – Comcast asked the SEC for permission to exclude the resolution from its proxy statement, and therefore from its annual meeting. The SEC allowed the company to omit the proposal. Subsequently, NLPC filed a proxy memo with the SEC last month in which it opposed the election of all 10 director nominees, over their refusal to allow shareholders to vote on the measure. In addition to NLPC’s rationale for opposing the nominees, the proxy memo also includes some of the very information Comcast’s directors tried to conceal: their campaign contributions for federal races going back at least 10 years, extracted from Federal Election Commission records. “Comcast argued that it was improper for director nominees’ personal charity and campaign donations to be disclosed and should be off-limits,” said Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project for NLPC. “It’s a bogus argument, at least regarding state and federal races, as those contributions are required to be reported to state elections boards and the FEC, and to be made available to the public.” NLPC sponsored the same proposal for the annual meetings of Alphabet, Amazon and Home Depot as well. None of those companies opposed allowing a vote on director transparency at their meetings. “You might think Big Tech companies might be more reluctant to make such disclosures, but they were at least willing to allow their investors to weigh in on the issue,” Chesser added. “Meanwhile Comcast controls some of the most extensive and influential news gathering organizations in the world. Their Board owes it to their audiences, as well as their shareholders, to inform them where they stand ideologically.” Founded in 1991, the National Legal and Policy Center promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action. Contact Details National Legal and Policy Center Dan Rene +1 202-329-8357 drene@nlpc.org Company Website http://www.nlpc.org

June 05, 2024 11:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Zingly launches a bold AI-driven future of customer experience for a world beyond 1-800 calls and chatbots

Zingly

Ex-Avaya, Five9, Glia, and Talkdesk industry leaders join forces to revolutionize customer experience (CX) with the launch of Zingly, a Collaborative Customer Experience (CCX) Platform. The patented customer-facing technology combines GenAI, digital interactions, and telephony, providing infinite scale to enterprises, and hyper personalization to consumers, resulting in revenue acceleration and lasting customer relationships. With this launch, Zingly is today announcing it has raised a $10m seed funding round from Dell Technologies Capital, WestWave Capital, Scribble Ventures, Formus Capital, Geekdom Fund, Array Ventures, Firebolt Ventures, Burst Capital, and from leaders in the CX industry. Today, customers are still primarily required to call 800 numbers and punch numbers into an interactive voice response (IVR) whenever they need to communicate with businesses. For customers, phone calls are an outdated and frustrating experience, and for businesses, they’re an expensive and unscalable method of communication. Meanwhile, businesses are seeing 10x traffic on their website and apps while experiencing declining call center traffic. Technology advancements in CX have typically focused on operational savings driven by cloud migration and agent support tools, but have often neglected the end customer. Zingly rectifies this imbalance by providing customers with Zingly-Rooms™ —a patented, always-on space where customers can instantly connect and collaborate with businesses, eliminating the need for calls. This is driven by the company’s Generative AI product technologies, including Relationship-AI™ and Zingly-Buddy™. Zingly focuses on eliminating friction and accelerating engagement use cases like customer acquisition, onboarding, customer service and success, and many more. This is done through a modern no-code-low-code platform that integrates into any tech stack (CRM, existing contact center technologies, customer support systems, and core operations) and intelligently combines cutting-edge Generative AI, humans, and data. The end result is an innovative collaborative space that can scale to support service and sales operations for businesses of all sizes, while providing hyper-personalization for customers. Founded in 2021 by Gaurav Passi, a former executive at Avaya and Five9, Zingly was born out of a recognition that traditional contact center solutions were becoming obsolete. With global inflationary pressures driving up the cost per call and limiting scalability due to the finite number of agents, the need for industry disruption was clear. Passi teamed up with seasoned CX, CRM, and CCaaS leaders from Five9, Talkdesk, and Glia to launch Zingly. “Traditional contact center solutions are out of date and simply not personable for customers, or scalable for businesses. The math is clear, there are approximately 16.5 million call center agents globally handling potentially billions of customers. More importantly, the frustration and long wait times associated with traditional calling and rigid workflow-driven chatbots have created what we call a fear of reaching out (FORO) among customers. Our vision with Zingly is to destroy FORO and make it collaborative for customers and businesses to come together,” said Gaurav Passi, CEO and founder of Zingly. “Zingly represents a significant leap forward from the traditional trade-off between personalization and scalability in CX. While traditional calls are unscalable and conversational chatbots can feel too robotic, Zingly offers a new CX paradigm that is faster, cheaper, and more secure than both 1-800 numbers and conversational AI chatbots” added Gaurav Passi. Currently focusing on high-value industries such as financial services, healthcare, and product companies, Zingly is able to help organizations modernize their customer experience seamlessly by integrating with their existing technology stacks. As an example, Zingly is working with a Fortune 500 provider to engage with 5x more customers than traditional 1:1 phone conversations, while also reducing typical conversion time from 60 to 18 days, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of revenue uplift. Most importantly, it allowed them to innovate on top of their core infrastructure like Salesforce and Avaya without any disruption. “To truly revolutionize CX, it needed top industry leaders like those from Zingly to step back and fundamentally reimagine a new approach. Incremental improvements to CX were not enough. A deep technology solution intelligently combining data, GenAI, and humans, as well as a dedicated team of CX experts together with forward looking Fortune 500 design partners was required for such a revolution,” said Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst, ZK Research. “The vision presented by Zingly happens once in a decade. We are excited to partner with the team right from its inception”, said Gaurav Manglik of WestWave Capital. While Gokul Rajaram, Board Member at Coinbase and Pinterest, and former executive at DoorDash and Square added: “What I respect about Gaurav Passi as a leader and Zingly as a company is that they have had the same mission from day 1. They work closely with large complex enterprises to solve deep challenges, and as a result, have built the best platform to disrupt the much needed CX industry with clear ROI. This clarity of mission and singular focus has been a big reason for their continued success.” Looking ahead, Zingly is rapidly expanding its teams in data science and engineering, sales, and marketing with plans to double its headcount by the end of next year. On track to be driving millions of quality customer interactions this year, Zingly is accelerating its mission to help companies collaborate with their customers and build relationships bigger than business. About Zingly Zingly.ai is the new way for businesses to meet, onboard and build lasting relationships with customers. Built by industry insiders in collaboration with Fortune 500 service providers, Zingly is a faster, cheaper, more secure, and better-organized solution than today's chatbots and 1-800 calling, eliminating friction and accelerating use cases like customer acquisition, onboarding, and support. Zingly makes online customer experiences delightful and personal by intelligently combining GenAI + Humans + Data to provide infinite scale for businesses and hyper personalization for customers to drive revenue acceleration and create exceptional customer experiences. Zingly serves businesses across multiple industries including Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Education, and Healthcare. Visit https://www.zingly.ai/ to learn more. About WestWave Capital Deep-Tech takes deep partnerships. Founded by former entrepreneurs, WestWave knows that founders need more than just capital. WestWave Capital invests in market defining pre-seed, seed and series A enterprise start ups. About Dell Technologies Capital DTC invests in determined early-stage founders who push the envelope on technology innovation for the enterprise, connecting them to the capital, expertise, and customers they need to take a company from start to scale. Since its inception in 2012, DTC has backed more than 150 startups, a list that notably includes Arista Networks, Cylance, DocuSign, Exotec, JFrog, MongoDB, Nasuni, Netskope, Nutanix, Nuvia, Redis, Xometry, and Zscaler. DTC has offices in Palo Alto (HQ), Boston, and Tel Aviv. About Scribble Ventures Scribble Ventures is an early-stage venture firm started by operators and investors from Instagram, Twitter, & A16z. We invest in Pre-Seed and Seed, and write initial checks of up to $1.5M. This allows Scribble to collaborate and co-invest with other angel investors and early-stage funds, so founders can bring the best partners into their round. We work closely with our founders alongside The Scribble Network - a curation of world-class operators across sectors and stages - for guidance on product, growth, hiring, fundraising, and more. We aren’t just investors to our founders - we are teammates. More info: scribble.vc About Formus Capital Formus Capital is a global technology investment firm backed by a network of family offices across various sectors & geographies. Our mission is to partner with exceptional, mission driven teams transforming industries and building world-impacting companies. About Geekdom Fund Geekdom Fund is a venture capital fund that invests in early stage tech startups led by the strongest founders. Our partners are in the trenches with our companies. Whether it be hiring, channel development, fundraising, executive coaching, or brainstorming sessions with your team, our goal is to help founders avoid costly mistakes and make high impact decisions. Array Ventures Array Ventures invests in founders passionate about solving problems for businesses. We partner from first round of your journey and help companies hone their go-to-market /10x growth journey. About Firebolt Ventures Firebolt Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on all things software (enterprise b2b application/infrastructure layers, fintech, consumer) to help extraordinary founders build enduring companies. We partner with founders early, invest throughout the lifecycle of the company and aim to be your most impactful investor. About Burst Capital Burst Capital invests in early-stage software and service companies, primarily those with marketplace and SaaS business models. As operators turned investors, we provide our portfolio company founders with on-call operating advice as we support their rapidly scaling businesses. Contact Details Zingly Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.zingly.ai/

June 05, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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