SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 7, 2023 — MindsDB, the most widely used open source applied machine learning (ML) platform in the world, today announced a $16.5M Series A investment from Benchmark.

MindsDB was built to dramatically speed up the process of building AI powered applications. With more than 13,000 GitHub Stars and 70+ technology and data integrations, MindsDB has become one of the fastest growing developer platforms.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen important revolutions in the world of SaaS, from the rise of web applications, to the growth of mobile apps. Now, it’s time for the next revolution in the world of technology: the reinvention of all the systems we use on a daily basis, like email, calendars, CRMs, ERPs, CMSs, telehealth, office documents, etc, all with AI capacities at their core,” said Jorge Torres, Co-Founder and CEO of MindsDB. “This reality is rapidly changing the way we interact with technology and with MindsDB, developers can rapidly create the next wave of AI-centered applications that will transform the way we live and work.”

This new investment follows MindsDB’s latest integrations with Hugging Face and OpenAI, which allow anyone to easily bring state-of-the-art natural language processing and generative AI models into their database with only a few lines of SQL. With Hugging Face, developers can access pre-trained NLP models and apply them to their own data for use cases such as advanced text classification, sentiment analysis, emotion detection, translation, and more. With the OpenAI integration, developers can customize to their data the power of cutting edge generative AI models including GPT-3, Codex, and DALL·E.

Benchmark is known to invest in, and work alongside, entrepreneurs building startups into transformational companies. The firm has also been recognized for its commitment to open source with investments including Confluent, Elastic, Cockroach Labs, Docker, Airbyte, Clickhouse, MySQL, TimeScaleDB, Red Hat, and many others. Benchmark General Partner Chetan Puttagunta is joining the board of directors, bringing his deep expertise and track record as an early investor and board member in open source leaders including Elastic, Mulesoft (acquired by Salesforce for $6.5B), and MongoDB.

“Today, there’s tremendous interest in the developer community to implement and integrate machine learning into their applications, but the process is complicated and expensive,” said Chetan Puttagunta, general partner at Benchmark. “MindsDB is enabling developers from small startups to the biggest enterprises in the world by enabling developers to quickly and efficiently run ML models of their choosing with the database of their choosing. This approach has already made MindsDB the de facto choice for developers, and I’m thrilled to work alongside Jorge and Adam and the rest of the MindsDB team.”

About MindsDB

MindsDB enables developers to create the next wave of AI-centered applications that will transform the way we live and work. MindsDB was founded in 2017 by Adam Carrigan (COO) and Jorge Torres (CEO) and is backed with over $24M in total funding from Benchmark, Walden Catalyst Ventures, YCombinator, OpenOcean, the venture fund launched by the creators of MySQL and MariaDB, SpeedInvest, MMC and the University of California Berkeley SkyDeck fund. MindsDB is also recognized by Forbes as one of America’s most promising AI companies (2021) and by Gartner as a Cool Vendor for Data and AI (2022). To see how MindsDB can help you visit www.mindsdb.com or follow us @MindsDB.

SOURCE MindsDB

New Agreement Provides Existing and Recently Signed Franchisees Direct Access to Capital for Assistance with Launching New Businesses

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7, 2023 — BODY20, the category-leading Electro-Muscle Stimulation (EMS) fitness franchise, announced today it has surpassed 200 signed franchise agreements, which will propel the brand’s growth into 2023 and beyond. To support its existing and new owners during this period of unprecedented growth, BODY20 is partnering with Benetrends, a trailblazing pioneer for franchise funding solutions, to provide owners with $30 million in proprietary funding strategies that maximize opportunities and minimize risk.

2023 looks to be another record-setting year as BODY20’s recently signed franchise agreements will expand the company into several new markets, including Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, San Antonio, Detroit, Portland and New York.

Benetrends will set up BODY20 franchisees with the support they need to start a successful business, including Benetrends’ comprehensive suite of service solutions and small business funding options. Franchisees are able to select the funding plan that best fits their specific needs, whether that is a retirement plan or a conventional business loan. Benetrends determined that BODY20 was the ideal choice to become the first designated franchisor to participate in their new funding program, as both companies are passionate about helping small businesses succeed, and believe this partnership to be an avenue for immense growth.

“This is yet another example of how we are committed to our franchisees – from hiring the absolute best people in the industry, to leveraging strategic partnerships like Benetrends,” said Chris Pena, President and Founder of BODY20. “We understand the importance of ensuring that our franchisees can and will get open successfully.”

“Capital access challenges are going to affect every franchise system’s unit expansion for the next few years. The days of building relationships with preferred lenders in advance of expected loan applications are gone and we’re now experiencing a paradigm shift in the ways franchisors and lenders interact,” added Bob McQuillan, Chief Development Officer of BODY20. “A fund like Benetrends will continue to allow brands such as ours to grow organically and bring in best-in-class franchisees and operators.”

“Benetrends is excited to now provide designated franchisors and their franchisees access to the critical funding needed to expand their current operations or purchase their first franchise,” said Rocco Fiorentino, President & CEO of Benetrends, Inc. “We’re pleased to award BODY20 $30 million, as they look to meet their future development needs following their record-setting growth in 2022.”

BODY20 was ranked Number 27 on Entrepreneur Magazine‘s 2022 Emerging Franchise List and among Franchise Dictionary Magazine‘s TOP 100 Game Changers for 2022, well on its way to becoming a household name in the boutique fitness space. The total initial investment to open a BODY20 franchise ranges from $409,021.65 to $498,441.00, according to their 2022 Franchise’ Disclosure Document (FDD). For more information about BODY20 and to learn about franchising opportunities, visit: https://body20.com/franchise.

About BODY20:

BODY20 is a rapidly growing fitness franchise that leverages technology through the use of an FDA-cleared Electro-Muscle Stimulation (EMS) suit to revolutionize the way people workout and help unlock their full potential. BODY20 offers a 20-minute one-on-one workout with a certified BODY20 Coach that guides you through customized strength and cardio programs, giving your body over 150 times more muscle contractions than a conventional workout without any use of traditional gym equipment. BODY20’s goal is to in just 20 minutes per week, materially impact the other 10,060 minutes in the week for each and every member. To learn more about BODY20 and its franchise opportunities, visit: https://body20.com.

SOURCE BODY20 Global USA, LLC; DBA “BODY20” / Fishman PR

flox empowers anyone to use the popular Nix tools to simplify systems development life cycle

NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2023 — flox, the company bringing the power of Nix to everyone, today announced it has raised $16.5 million in its Series A led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), bringing total funding to date to $27 million. flox was incubated at DESCOvery, the D. E. Shaw group’s venture studio, and its early backers include Addition and Hetz Ventures. Notable angel investors include Thomas Dohmke, CEO at Github; Guy Podjarny, founder of Snyk; and James Turnbull, former CTO at Microsoft for Startups and VP at Docker, currently CTO at Sotheby’s.

The company today is also introducing its new open source flox platform and is expected to release its enterprise platform later this year. flox expands on Nix’s unique approach to package management and system configuration to provide convenience, collaboration and control throughout the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It is helping developers and enterprises realize the value of Nix with new and powerful capabilities by providing portable, fully-isolated development; test and production environments; a tailored catalog of software packages with flox; and tooling for managing the entire SDLC.

“Building and deploying software in a reproducible, secure manner is perhaps the biggest challenge facing developers today,” said Aaron Jacobson, Partner at NEA. “flox recognizes the innovations within Nix to solve this challenge yet those challenges come with the cost of a steep learning curve. By creating an easy-to-use platform around Nix, flox supercharges productivity for developers everywhere while also making their software more secure.”

“We created flox to give developers better collaboration and control over their development lifecycle, including improved automation over production releases, reduced operational risk and increased productivity,” said Ron Efroni, CEO and co-founder at flox. “We recognized the vast power of Nix but knew there was a market need to take developer tools to the next level, providing versioned environments-as-code that could be consistently released, updated and maintained and that could offer improved security and efficiency. We couldn’t be more excited to offer this to developers and bring this to market now.”

CEO Ron Efroni is a member of the NixOS Foundation board, and several flox team members are Nix contributors. With the goal of more widespread adoption of Nix, the team will continue to contribute, support and promote the Nix project and community. Read more about flox’s story and relationship with Nix here: https://floxdev.com/about.

“flox helps developers and enterprises innovate better and deploy software securely,” said Todd Arfman of Addition. “We’re excited to partner with Ron and his talented team as they continue to expand and roll out their new open source platform to bring Nix to everyone.”

The way software is built is changing. Larger code bases, complex software dependencies, cloud-native technologies and massive security breaches are just a few examples of the reasons organizations are re-evaluating the way they build and deploy software. They’ve started looking beyond containers at tools and platforms that can improve their build and development process, increase efficiency and result in higher quality code, reproducibility and visibility into their stack – in any environment.

flox enables organizations to adopt and implement Nix at scale by providing omni-platform developer, test and production environments defined (and managed) as code. With flox it is easy to share environments and packages across teams, machines, individuals and organizations while integrating into existing workflows. In the areas of Security and Compliance, flox provides complete visibility into the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for applications used in production environments, providing the ultimate visibility into the software stack and enabling real-time vulnerability management and detection without scanning.

“flox was originally built within the D. E. Shaw group to help our developers adopt Nix at scale,” said Ron Davidson, co-head of DESCOvery, the D. E. Shaw group’s venture studio. “The platform is still used at the D. E. Shaw group today, and we’re excited about the value that we believe flox can bring to developers everywhere.”

Developers can start using the flox open source platform today.

The enterprise version is expected later this year and interested parties can sign up here to be the first to know when it’s available.

To stay on the cutting edge of flox development and releases, sign up for its Discourse and follow flox on GitHub.

About flox
flox brings the power of Nix to everyone by offering the first end-to-end solution that empowers teams to accelerate and simplify their Systems Development Life Cycle. flox is the secure way to manage and deploy software in isolated and reproducible development or runtime environments. For more information, please visit: https://floxdev.com.

Media Contact:
[email protected]
503-867-2304

SOURCE flox

General Atlantic leads investment with focus on accelerating customer growth and product development

TORONTO AND NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2023 – Jobber, a leading provider of operations management software for home service businesses, today announced it has raised $100 million USD in primary capital led by global growth equity investor General Atlantic. The Series D round also includes participation from Jobber’s existing investors Summit Partners, Version One Ventures, and Tech Pioneers Fund. The financing is anticipated to support the company’s continued growth through investments in R&D, sales and marketing, and new customer acquisition.

Jobber’s mission is to help small home service businesses modernize their operations, increase earning potential, and meet evolving consumer expectations. Jobber’s all-in-one SaaS and mobile solution supports businesses through the full customer lifecycle—from sending quotes to scheduling crews, dispatching jobs, invoicing customers, and accepting credit card payments. More than 200,000 service pros in 60 countries rely on Jobber to help improve customer experience and run a more efficient small business.

“While this is an important milestone for Jobber, what we care about most is the success of the small businesses we serve,” said Sam Pillar, CEO and co-founder of Jobber. “We’re committed to doing everything we can to help them transform the way they deliver their services and operate their companies. We’re thrilled to partner with General Atlantic as we continue to pursue our mission of helping the people in small businesses be successful, and further entrench our leadership position in this important and growing small business category.”

Aaron Goldman, Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Technology Investing at General Atlantic, has joined Jobber’s Board of Directors. Mr. Goldman commented, “We believe Jobber is bringing much-needed innovation to the small business segment, a category that has been traditionally underserved by technology solutions and is still in the early stages of digital adoption. With a platform that is purpose-built for the home service category, Jobber has an opportunity to continue deepening its value as the platform of choice with its customers. We are pleased to partner with Sam and the Jobber leadership team as they focus on strategic growth and continued product expansion.”

Jobber raised its last round of funding in January 2021, a $60 million USD growth equity financing led by Summit Partners. Since that time, Jobber has grown its revenue 3X and is now helping more than 200,000 home service professionals across 50 industries including HVAC, lawn care, plumbing, residential cleaning, painting, and more to deliver services to more than 27 million properties. These jobs resulted in over $13 billion USD in revenue in 2022 for Jobber’s customers.

“Although we’re proud of our growth to date, the real opportunity lies ahead of us,” said Shawn Cadeau, Chief Revenue Officer at Jobber. “There are more than 6.2 million home service businesses in North America alone delivering more than $600 billion in services each year that can benefit greatly from using Jobber.”

Jobber has nearly 600 employees located across Canada, with some based in the U.S. and Latin America. The company is actively hiring across all areas of its business including sales, marketing, product, customer support, and business operations.

ABOUT JOBBER

Jobber is an award-winning operations management platform for small home service businesses. Unlike spreadsheets or pen and paper, Jobber keeps track of everything in one place and automates day-to-day operations, so small businesses can run smoothly and provide service at scale. Jobber’s 200,000 home service professionals have served over 27 million properties in more than 60 countries. The company continually ranks as one of Canada’s fastest-growing and most innovative companies by Canadian Business and Macleans, The Globe and Mail, Fast Company, and Deloitte. For more information, visit: https://jobber.com/.

ABOUT GENERAL ATLANTIC

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 445 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $73 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of September 30, 2022, and more than 215 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Miami, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stamford and Tel Aviv. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.

Media contacts

Sean Welch 
PAN Communications for Jobber 
[email protected] 
+1 407-734-7330

Elana Ziluk 
Senior Public Relations Manager, Jobber 
[email protected]
+1 416-317-2633

Emily Japlon & Gurion Kastenberg 
General Atlantic 
[email protected]

SOURCE Jobber

Invest Nova Scotia Joins Round: Existing Investor Doubles Down on Physician Network

HALIFAX, NS, Feb. 7, 2023 – The Rounds, a Canadian healthcare tech startup, announced today the successful close of its Series A round with two follow-on investments totaling $1.6 million CAD from Panoramic Ventures, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, and Invest Nova Scotia.

This brings the company’s total Series A round to $6.7 million CAD. The Rounds’ flagship product – therounds.com – is a free gated network designed to connect and collaborate with licensed healthcare professionals across North America. The new funding will be used to continue the development of the platform and provide users with a secure, seamless, and intuitive experience. 

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of both Panoramic Ventures and Invest Nova Scotia as we move forward with our mission to modernize the way healthcare professionals connect and collaborate,” said Tim Rice, CEO of The Rounds, “The new funds will help us make our platform more accessible and provide even more value to our users.”

The Rounds’ trusted platform helps physicians and healthcare professionals collaborate in highly specialized Communities of Practice (CoPs) where they can discuss medical topics with peers. Medical associations and multinational pharmaceutical companies leverage The Rounds as a third-party intermediary to ensure medical advances and new therapeutic options are at the fingertips of verified licensed medical professionals.

Panoramic Ventures Partner Austin Poole noted why the company made additional investments, “We continue to be impressed with the rapid adoption of The Rounds platform as the go-to platform for HCP collaboration, engagement, and knowledge sharing in North America. We’re thrilled to continue to support the team’s mission to improve global healthcare outcomes.” 

Ben McDade from Invest Nova Scotia further commented on why they decided to invest: “Our team at Invest Nova Scotia is proud to be a long-time supporter of, and investor in, The Rounds. The Series A fundraise will help replicate the company’s success in Canada across key healthcare markets in U.S. There has never been a better time to break down the geographic barriers stifling collaboration in specialty healthcare, and The Rounds is doing just that.”

Since its founding in 2012, The Rounds has forged relationships with national governing bodies such as the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) and Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC). The Rounds has established the largest database of active verified healthcare professionals in Canada through stringent verification and authentication processes.

About Panoramic Ventures:

Panoramic Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Atlanta that partners with extraordinary founders to build category-leading companies. Panoramic invests in B2B software and tech-enabled service businesses at all stages of maturity, from pre-seed and seed to growth and scale, giving more entrepreneurs access to capital to build leading tech companies. For more information, visit www.panoramic.vc or follow Panoramic Ventures on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter @panoramicvc. 

About Invest Nova Scotia

Invest Nova Scotia offers programs, services, advice, and other resources Nova Scotia companies need to grow. Start-ups are a key focus area for us, and we support them through venture capital, incubation facilities, expert advice, and other acceleration initiatives. We’re especially interested in deep technology start-ups, which are those based on scientific discovery, new engineering innovation, or IT that is not focused on end-user services.

About The Rounds:

The Rounds is Canada’s leading collaboration network for physicians and healthcare professionals. Founded in 2012, The Rounds modernizes how physicians and healthcare professionals access and share information because sharing knowledge saves lives. https://therounds.com/

SOURCE The Rounds

Kognitos launches the first generative AI platform that allows business users to automate business processes in plain English – bringing funding total to $9.35 million

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 7, 2023 — Kognitos, the pioneer in Generative AI for Business Automation using Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT3 and ChatGPT, today announced the company has closed a seed round of funding for $6.75 million. Clear Ventures is leading the seed round with participation from Engineering Capital and Wipro Ventures, the Corporate Investment arm of Wipro.

The funds will be used for the expansion of Kognitos’s cloud-based Koncierge™ platform. With the addition of this seed funding, Kognitos has received $9.35 million venture capital to date.

The Koncierge™ platform provides an intuitive Generative AI interface similar to ChatGPT – focused on the large global market for business process automation. The platform is powered by an AI Engine that can interpret the English language just like humans, enabling machines to fully understand a natural language for the very first time. Combining business data, business logic and LLM technology, Koncierge is able to automate business processes at cloud scale with the safety and auditability of human review in English.

Kognitos is the first company to enable Generative AI for automation in the enterprise, using English as the language of automation, audit and exception handling, enabling automation access to billions of business users worldwide. Kognitos also integrates with other AI technologies including GPT3, OCR, NLP, common business applications, cloud services and custom on-prem applications.

Kognitos offers patented conversational exception handling, lowering the cost of maintenance and troubleshooting automations. Rather than crashing on exceptions like traditional automations in the hyperautomation space, Koncierge starts a conversation to suggest resolutions and learns new business rules in English. As the global market for hyperautomation exceeds $600 billion, Gartner expects that by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyperautomation technologies with redesigned operational processes.

“We are unlocking the power of AI for humanity. Now every person will be able to use Generative AI for automating what they want – utilizing the English language,” said Binny Gill, founder and CEO of Kognitos. “It’s time for computers to behave like humans, and humans to stop behaving like machines. We have developed Koncierge™, an AI technology that brings the immense power of Generative AI to an unprecedented engine that runs English as Code. Using Koncierge™ anyone can now describe what they want to be automated, and their automation is generated – all in auditable English. That means no developers, no complex tools, no bots.”

Kognitos was created in 2020 to address one of the biggest challenges businesses face today with automation – the lack of skilled personnel in automation. By enabling business users to describe even intricate processes such as invoice processing, insurance claims, credit card payment reconciliation, in English, Kognitos aims to radically accelerate the speed of innovation in businesses by reducing both the time and resources required to automate and maintain processes.

“Current day automation tools require significant involvement of IT and service providers to use the no code/low code solutions. Kognitos has built a platform that allows the people who know and own business processes to combine business logic and Generative AI leading to rapid automation — all in English,” said Rajeev Madhavan, Founder and General Partner Clear Ventures. “Kognitos’s business logic interpreter operates in English and empowers all business users with Generative AI that can be applied even to private business apps and data. Kognitos already has several customers using this capability in production – saving significant time and resources in their businesses, without the need for developers.”

“The vision of Kognitos is so compelling – to enable a billion business users to automate IT using English. Recently there has been a lot of buzz around Generative AI being applied to the creative arts. Kognitos has been working for over a year to apply it to business automation – by far the biggest opportunity for AI going forward,” said Ashmeet Sidana, Chief Engineer, Engineering Capital. “Kognitos has cracked the problem of bringing the power of AI in a safe manner where any business user is able to review, understand and later audit what the AI does. We are delighted to have been the first investor in the company, and to support Binny’s mission of bringing safe AI to businesses around the world.”

Kognitos Customers Testimonials:

Chris Richner, CIO, Norco Industries: Utilizes Kognitos for AP Invoicing – the employees have saved up to 15 to 20 hours a week helping them focus on more strategic matters in the company:

• “Kognitos has enabled our company to streamline repetitive tasks, resulting in significant time savings. Our employees now save 10-15 hours per week, and as we continue to expand our automation projects with Kognitos, we anticipate these savings to significantly increase.”

Todd Hahn, VP, Process and Improvement for Brown Integrated Logistics: Utilizes Kognitos for Bill of Lading for hundreds of customers.

• “We have hundreds of different customers all with unique bills of ladings – and all with different requirements as to how it should be recorded in our system. So it is going to be easier to get larger volumes done with Kognitos…before it was a huge challenge, but Kognitos has made it so that we can use simple English to process how to manage numerous scenarios, and Kognitos can run that for us. So it cuts out all of the manual billing, indexing, and data extraction and you don’t have to be educated and trained in the way that you would have had to be previously. The interface is much more user-friendly and it’s easier to understand what the objective is based on the English language that’s in there. I have not seen this capability anywhere else.”

About Kognitos

Kognitos is the first company to enable generative AI to automate enterprise business processes. Founded in 2020, the company set out to address one of the biggest challenges for today’s businesses, automating intricate processes and workflows. Rather than forcing business managers to think like developers, Kognitos uses natural language processing automation (NLPA) and Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to enable business users to build automated workflows using everyday English. Kognitos is bringing seamless automation to billions of business users worldwide.

The Kognitos cloud platform includes Koncierge™, an intuitive interface that enables business users to plan automated processes, and BrainAI, a serverless technology that executes the action plan created in Koncierge. Using its own LLMs and related technologies such as GPT3, ChatGPT, OCR and NLP, Kognitos translates English commands into business automation, allowing users to customize processes in real time.

For more information, visit https://www.kognitos.com/

Media Contact:
Michele Nachum
(888) 317-4687
[email protected]

SOURCE Kognitos

Synthesis School Seeks to Identify the STEM Leaders of Tomorrow and Believes in Providing Access to The Most Innovative Education to All Students

GREENWICH, Conn., Feb. 7, 2023 — O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC, a creative investment firm that empowers creators and allows them to bring their ideas to life, announced today that they will be investing in the Synthesis School with the goal of developing and empowering the creators of tomorrow, today.

In 2015, Elon Musk and educator Joshua Dahn joined forces to bring the world Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”), a school designed to educate the children of SpaceX employees. Synthesis School is the next iteration of this groundbreaking educational project. Synthesis represents a new way of thinking about education, leveraging team thinking games to teach kids problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. 

Synthesis School officially launched in November 2020, led by Dahn and CEO Chrisman Frank, a veteran educator and engineer from Ed-tech unicorn ClassDojo. Dahn and Frank aim to help prepare children to solve complex problems and advance human civilization.

The existing subscription of Synthesis School offers a weekly enrichment program, focusing on building the soft skills that kids too often miss in traditional school environments. Synthesis is also developing cutting-edge math and science offerings to create a “full stack” online school aimed at the world’s most advanced science and technology students. Frank describes Synthesis as a massive tournament to find the next generation of STEM leaders and to give all children access to the world’s most innovative education. 

Jim O’Shaughnessy, Founder of O’Shaughnessy Ventures, commented: “Tuned-in parents already understand that the ability to solve complex problems is the most valuable skill and something that is rarely taught or practiced in traditional schools. O’Shaughnessy Ventures believes that next-generation learning opportunities are enormous, and Synthesis Schools is leading the way.”

Chrisman Frank, the CEO of Synthesis School, commented: “Jim and his team see the pervasive problems with the industrial-educational complex. It kills human ingenuity—our most vital resource. I’m thrilled to welcome Jim as an investor and partner in our mission to advance human civilization through education.”

About O’Shaughnessy Ventures:

O’Shaughnessy Ventures (OSV) is a creative investment firm that empowers and inspires creators to bring their ideas to life. Founded by Jim O’Shaughnessy, a pioneer in quantitative investing and founder of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and author of four books on investing, OSV aims to provide financial support and be a partner in building and growing the next life-changing creative idea. 

OSV combines Jim’s deeply rooted interest in all things art, science, investing and tech with his long-held desire to establish positive-sum scenarios designed to help promising creators and their inspiring ideas succeed, regardless of age, location, job history or level of education. For more information, visit https://www.osv.llc.

About Synthesis School:  Synthesis Schools promotes team thinking games that turn kids into effective decision-makers and communicators. Founded by the creator of Ad Astra School at SpaceX. For more information, visit https://www.synthesis.com/.

Media Contact

Ena Gong
O’Shaughnessy Ventures, LLC (917) 355-7420  [email protected]

SOURCE O’Shaughnessy Ventures, LLC

Reinforces Workday’s Position as a Leading Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Innovator Driving the Future of Work

PLEASANTON, Calif., Feb. 7, 2023 — Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced a $250 million expansion of its Workday Ventures fund. The additional $250 million investment capital from Workday into Workday Ventures, the strategic capital arm of Workday Inc., builds on the company’s solid performance and is the latest step in its journey to shape the future of work.

At a time when global fragmentation, emerging working models, and accelerated innovation are transforming the way organizations manage their workforce, companies must embrace technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help them rapidly adapt to change at scale today, so they are prepared for the business needs of tomorrow. To help support this, Workday is expanding its Workday Ventures fund to focus on larger growth areas, including emerging technologies like generative AI, which speaks to the company’s ongoing focus on embracing innovations that unlock human potential in the changing world of work.

“This additional investment capital into Workday Ventures is reflective of our continued commitment to serving our customers, helping them not only adapt but thrive and lead the future of work,” said Pete Schlampp, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of corporate growth, Workday. “We partner with pioneering technology companies that are closely aligned with our values such as innovation, integrity, and customer service, and we are laser-focused on supporting customers, entrepreneurs, and changemakers that help redefine our industry.”

The expansion of the fund will further reinforce Workday Ventures’ strategic focus on:

• AI and ML. Workday Ventures is focused on investing in global enterprise software companies that offer AI and ML technologies, empowering agile and insights-driven decision-making for finance and human resources (HR) teams. For example, Workday Ventures has invested in companies that offer conversational AI, such as Paradox, which provides a conversational recruiting platform to automate the talent acquisition process.
• Intelligent Automation. Workday Ventures will continue to invest in the intelligent automation of financial and HR business processes, and empower intelligent resource management for greater efficiency and talent optimization. For example, Workday Ventures has invested in Auditoria, which provides an AI-based platform to automate and increase the speed, accuracy, and productivity of accounts payable and receivable teams.
• Serving Targeted Markets. Workday Ventures is expanding investments into key industries, adjacent markets, and solutions to deliver even more value to customers. For example, Workday Ventures has invested in companies that serve the retail industry, such as Prevedere, which offers econometric forecasting powered by global data and AI, giving retailers a real-time view of future shopper demand and drivers.

“As a Workday Ventures portfolio company, Auditoria integrates with Workday Financial Management to deliver intelligent supplier automation, freeing suppliers and buyers from manual work, eliminating repetitive work, and speeding up the entire cycle,” said Rohit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Auditoria. “Partnering with Workday has enabled us to bring transformative solutions, powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language technology, to finance teams, enabling them to move faster and accomplish more through intelligent automation at scale. The investment and partnership with Workday have allowed us to partner with CFOs to optimize and transform their operations.”

This additional investment expands on Workday Ventures’ existing portfolio of 43 technology companies since the initial $250 million fund was announced in 2018.

About Workday 
Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, helping customers adapt and thrive in a changing world. Workday applications for financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics have been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.

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SOURCE Workday Inc.

TOKYO, Feb. 7, 2023 — Techtouch, a top local provider of digital adoption platforms in Japan, announced today that it had raised JPY 1.78 billion with DNX Ventures as the lead investor.

Joining DNX Ventures in the round are new investors, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Dentsu Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, BRICKS FUND TOKYO and THE CREATIVE FUND and existing investors, DBJ Capital, and Archetype Ventures.

The investment brings Techtouch’s total funds raised to 2.4 billion yen. The primary use of the funds will be to invest in recruiting, marketing, and global expansion, starting from the Asia region.

Techtouch’s Digital Adoption Platform enables clients to drive their digital transformations through digital adoption. The company also announced a significant user milestone; it surpassed 2 million active users in December 2022. Techtouch owns the No.1 market share of the Japanese DAP market, according to the “ITR Market View: Customer Success Market 2022,” a market research report published by ITR.

With the latest funding, Techtouch will further increase investment in Japan, and at the same time, expand overseas operations, particularly in Asia. First, Techtouch aims to enforce customer support teams for overseas branches and overseas subsidiaries of Japanese enterprises and then invest in the sales and marketing division.

Techtouch currently serves three different client sectors.

(1) Large enterprises

Many large enterprises are implementing modern SaaS software in the context of digital transformation, such as Salesforce, SAP, Concur, and SuccessFactors. However, because employees cannot adapt to the rapid changes in systems and operations, the systems introduced for digital transformation purposes need to be used as intended. As a result, digital transformation is progressing slower than planned.

Techtouch guides every employee through their day-to-day operations, thus guaranteeing successful system implementations. Many top Japanese large enterprises, including financial institutions, have introduced the system.

(2) Public ministries and municipalities

Since December 2021, the Japanese government has set forth a “Priority Plan for the Realization of a Digital Society” to promote digitization in central ministries, public offices, and local governments. In addition, local governments are also seeking to improve the convenience of administrative procedures, simplify and streamline administrative operations, and in response to the growing needs of citizens due to changes in their lifestyles and work styles, such as the promotion of remote work, refraining from unurgent and unnecessary outings, and avoiding the three densities due to COVID-19, public offices and various local governments have begun to introduce e-application services.

However, there is a concern that users unfamiliar with the system operation will be left behind (digital divide) if the system only promotes the computerization of administrative procedures, and there is a need to remove barriers to the use of the system.

Techtouch solves this issue by providing an environment where anyone can operate the system without hesitation through guided navigation. The system’s convenience has been highly evaluated, and central ministries and local governments have already implemented Techtouch.

(3) SaaS companies

SaaS providers’ customer success staff are required to respond to a wide range of customer needs, and as a result, their support tends to be high touch. While high-touch support involves many resources, hiring customer success professionals and maximizing the customer experience with limited resources is challenging. Therefore, it is essential to streamline operations in the right places and to make customer success a tech-touch process, which is essential to product-led growth.

Techtouch solves this issue with a guide and navigation system that can be installed with no code. By utilizing a guided navigation system that can be easily installed even by business-side customer success staff with no coding expertise, “Techtouch” supports SaaS companies in implementing customer marketing, making “Techouch” and SaaS product-led growth available.

The system has been well received and is currently being implemented by many SaaS companies.

“So far, we have established the concept of digital adoption in many Japanese organizations. Using our current positioning, we will enforce our position as the Digital Adoption market leader in Japan. At the same time, in Asia, digital adoption as an enabler of digital transformation will become a major trend in the next decade.” said Naka Imuta, co-founder and CEO of Techtouch.

About Techtouch

Techtouch’s Digital Adoption Platform enables clients to drive their digital transformations.

We commit to creating a world in which all users can use any technologies through real-time guided navigation and to realize a society in which no one is left behind through digital transformation.

Contact
Account Executive Team
[email protected]

SOURCE Techtouch, Inc.