Financing led by Sands Capital brings total capital raised to nearly $250 million.

FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 26, 2024 — Alamar Biosciences, a company powering precision proteomics to enable the earliest detection of disease, announced today the first close of $100 million in Series C financing with the second close of an additional $28 million expected to happen within the next 30 days. This new capital brings Alamar’s total funding to date to nearly $250 million. The financing round was led by Sands Capital and included participation from new financial and strategic investors as well as existing major investors. Concurrent with the financing, Ian Ratcliffe, Executive Managing Partner of Sands Capital, has joined the Company’s Board of Directors.

“We are extremely grateful for the strong support we have received from this premium group of investors in this significantly oversubscribed round. It is a testament to our game changing technology, solid IP, and strong early market adoption,” said Dr. Yuling Luo, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Alamar. “Our proprietary NULISA™ technology has demonstrated superior performance and a unique combination of capabilities that will enable our customers to accelerate biomarker discovery and the development of non-invasive tests for diseases with high unmet need. With this funding, we are now well positioned to power precision proteomics through accelerated commercialization.”

“Proteomics represents a dynamic and fast-growing market with significant opportunity for disruption as new platforms providing both higher sensitivity and multiplex capability are needed to accelerate proteomics research and translation,” said Ian Ratcliffe, Executive Managing Partner of Sands Capital. “The enthusiasm we have seen from early customers makes us believe that Alamar is poised to become a leader in the evolving proteomics space.” 

Earlier this year, Alamar announced the commercial launch of the ARGO™ HT System and the NULISAseq™ Inflammation Panel 250 for deep profiling of immune response. Alamar’s NULISA technology utilizes a novel sequential capture and release method to purify the immune complex, improving signal-to-noise by more than 10,000-fold. It also provides corresponding increases in sensitivity and dynamic range in comparison with traditional immunoassay approaches. The ARGO HT System provides an automated method for running NULISA assays with less than 30 minutes of total hands-on time. With qPCR and NGS readouts, the NULISA platform enables both focused analysis of validated biomarkers and highly multiplexed profiling of hundreds to ultimately thousands of proteins. The company plans to use the funds to grow the commercial and customer support teams, drive market adoption, and expand the product menu.

About Alamar Biosciences, Inc.
Alamar Biosciences is a privately held life sciences company with a mission to power precision proteomics to enable the earliest detection of disease. The company’s proprietary NULISA Platform along with the ARGO HT System work seamlessly with the latest advances in genomics to achieve single digit attomolar detection sensitivity, greatly surpassing the most sensitive protein detection technology on the market today. For more information, please visit http://www.alamarbio.com.

SOURCE Alamar Biosciences, Inc.

• Collaboration leverages Neomorph’s leading molecular glue discovery platform and Novo Nordisk’s extensive expertise in cardiometabolic and rare diseases
• Total potential deal value of $1.46B across multiple targets

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 26, 2024 — Neomorph, Inc. today announced it has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with global healthcare company Novo Nordisk to discover, develop and commercialize molecular glue degraders. Neomorph, a biotechnology company solving critical problems in human health through the discovery of novel therapeutics against ‘undruggable’ targets, was founded in 2020 and is venture backed by Deerfield Management Company.

“We are incredibly excited to partner with Novo Nordisk, a world-class healthcare company within diabetes, obesity and rare blood disorders,” said Phil Chamberlain, DPhil, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Neomorph. “By combining Neomorph’s proprietary glue discovery platform with Novo Nordisk’s vast experience in cardiometabolic and rare diseases, we are well positioned to develop transformative treatments in these areas. This collaboration will enable the expansion of our platform into new therapeutic areas, complementing our on-going efforts in oncology.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Neomorph will receive an upfront and near-term milestone payments, plus R&D funding. Neomorph is also eligible to receive future clinical, commercial and sales milestone payments bringing the total potential deal value for multiple targets to $1.46B, plus tiered royalties. Neomorph will lead discovery and preclinical activities against selected targets with Novo Nordisk having the right to exclusively pursue further clinical development and commercialization of the compounds.

“Novo Nordisk is expanding its drug discovery efforts and deploying a range of novel technology platforms with the aim of discovering and developing new treatment solutions for people living with serious chronic diseases. We are pleased to enter this research collaboration and eager to start the scientific work on the novel class of molecular glue degraders being pioneered by Neomorph,” said Brian Vandahl, Senior Vice President of Global Research Technologies at Novo Nordisk.

About Neomorph
Neomorph is a biotechnology company solving critical problems in human health through the discovery and development of innovative new medicines against ‘undruggable’ targets. Neomorph was founded in 2020 and is venture backed by Deerfield Management Company.

Neomorph’s team is comprised of industry leading experts in protein degradation and molecular glues who have a track record of ground-breaking discoveries in the field. The team at Neomorph is committed to leadership in advancing the science and technology of molecular glue drug discovery, while prosecuting a pipeline of projects through clinical development.

Neomorph is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, visit www.neomorph.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts
Investor Contact: [email protected]
Media Contact: [email protected] 

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2341384/Neomorph_Logo.jpg

NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2024 — NLX®, which is revolutionizing the way AI powers customer experiences for large and enterprise brands, is proud to announce it has raised $12 million in Series A funding, led by Cercano and joined by Thayer Ventures and HL Ventures. Initial investors IAG Capital Partners, JetBlue Ventures and Tech Square Ventures’ Engage also contributed to this new round of funding.

“AI is transforming the customer service journey for brands and it is essential that every touchpoint in that journey feels personalized to the consumer and exceeds their expectations – while also grounded in practicality,” said Andrei Papancea, CEO and Chief Product Officer of NLX. “This milestone speaks to NLX’s success in helping some of the most well-known global brands deliver world-class customer experiences at scale. We are excited to continue our growth and development with this latest round of capital which will fuel NLX’s market expansion, strategic hires, and even more market-defining capabilities, like our patented multimodal technology.” 

NLX leverages the latest in generative AI, cloud software, and its voice, chat and multimodal conversational AI technology to deliver exceptional customer experiences that meet the scale, complexity and compliance needs of enterprise brands. 

Among those enterprise customers include, but are not limited to, Red Bull and Copa Airlines. NLX has also engaged with teams at Comcast following their participation in the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs accelerator program. NLX’s largest deployment is rolled out in 90 countries and over 65 languages and locales. 

“NLX is redefining the way people interact with brands. Their commitment to providing automated and frictionless multimodal self-service experiences aligns with the evolving needs of enterprises. We are excited to support NLX’s innovative approach and their potential to revolutionize the customer experience landscape,” said Lauren Glatter, investor at Cercano.

“NLX continues to empower companies by enabling them to provide customers with a seamless end-to-end self-service experience. This not only delights customers but also helps in managing substantial fluctuations in call center demands. We are proud of the innovative strides being made by NLX, and are excited to see what they have in store for enhancing customer experiences in the future,” said Ryan Chou, Managing Director, Investments at JetBlue Ventures.

More about NLX
NLX provides an end-to-end enterprise AI platform for creating, managing, deploying and analyzing chat, voice, and multimodal conversational applications. The platform enables brands to manage conversational deployments across their entire enterprise, while providing unmatched modularity and access to state of the art AI models from providers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and the Open Source community. 

Cercano Management, LLC (“Cercano“) is an SEC registered investment adviser, the statement provided is not intended and should not be construed as solicitation to purchase or sell, any security, investment product or service. Cercano‘s views and commentary are subject to change in the future without notice. Nothing stated is intended to predict the performance of any investment.

CONTACT: 
Molly Gannon Conway
[email protected]

SOURCE NLX

Tech-enabled lender’s largest deal since November 2021 was upsized due to oversubscription from significant investor interest 

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26, 2024 — Kiavi, a leading provider of capital to residential real estate investors, today announced it closed an approximately $350 million unrated securitization of residential transition loans (“RTLs”). This is Kiavi’s 16th transaction under its LHOME shelf, bringing the company’s total issuance to $4 billion+ in offered notes since it began its securitization program in 2019.

With significant interest from both new and repeat institutional investors, the deal was upsized and oversubscribed in all classes of bonds, resulting in Kiavi’s largest securitization since November 2021. The offered notes are in three classes, A1, A2, and M, all of which were sold. As with prior transactions, the deal includes a two-year revolving period, during which principal payoffs can be reinvested to purchase additional newly originated loans.

“We’re thrilled to apply this capital to help more and more real estate investors scale their businesses while creating move-in ready homes for millions of Americans,” said Arvind Mohan, CEO of Kiavi. “Kiavi’s platform and unique use of AI, data, and machine-learning models are significant contributors to our consistent track record of performance, which has helped us build and grow reliable institutional demand for Kiavi’s RTL assets over the past five years. We aim to build upon our technology and AI capabilities to further serve our customers and drive our performance as we continue to grow,” he added.

This deal comes just a few weeks after Kiavi closed a $300M securitization and reported record fix-and-flip loan origination volume in 2023, signaling positive momentum for the company in 2024.

Kiavi is one of the top lenders to real estate investors who are looking to buy, renovate, and sell or rent a home. The company’s technology platform, data-driven approach, and leading capital execution allow Kiavi to provide real estate investors with a transparent online experience, competitive pricing, and reliable capital to scale their businesses.

Nomura Securities International, Inc. (Nomura) was the sole structuring agent of the deal. Nomura, Barclays Capital, Inc. and Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC were joint bookrunners and co-lead managers on the transaction.

About Kiavi
With $18 billion in funded loans, Kiavi is one of the nation’s largest private lenders to residential real estate investors (“REIs”). Kiavi harnesses the power of data & technology to offer REIs a simpler, more reliable, and faster way to access the capital they need to scale their businesses. Formerly known as LendingHome, Kiavi is committed to helping its customers revitalize the approximately $25 trillion of aged U.S. housing stock to provide move-in ready homes and rental housing for millions of Americans across the country. For more information, visit www.kiavi.com. 

SOURCE Kiavi Inc.

The startup closed Pre-Series A Round Led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from previous round lead DCM

BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 26, 2024 — FlowGPT, an inclusive platform fostering an open ecosystem for AI application creators and the community, announced it has raised $10 million in a Pre-Series A round. The round was led by Goodwater Capital, the world’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on consumer technology, with participation from DCM, a global early stage VC firm, which led the company’s prior round while the company was still in stealth. FlowGPT is the largest open source store for AI-native applications, with a mission to bring AI to everyone. Since the company’s launch in January 2023, FlowGPT has attracted millions of users monthly across 110 countries. FlowGPT’s engaged user base has developed more than 100,000 AI applications, for use on LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Google PaLM and open source models like Pygmalion.

“We believe the biggest future for AI is in open ecosystems,” said Coddy Johnson, Partner at lead investor Goodwater Capital. “FlowGPT is helping to lead the way by building the largest open platform for AI apps, with the widest choice for users and with the most flexibility and freedom for creators to choose their models and collaborate with their communities.”

Before LLMs, developing software required a whole team of professional engineers, designers and product managers. The high cost and required skill base were barriers to creating software solutions, leaving a huge number of problems unsolved. FlowGPT founders, Jay Dang and Lifan Wang recognized this issue and the opportunity for LLMs to enable anyone to create AI-native applications using natural language (prompts). With a vision that AI would democratize software development, Jay and Lifan created FlowGPT, the largest all-in-one AI app store and community where users can directly explore, use, and create AI-native applications powered by the creativity of creators.

FlowGPT will use the funding to expand its engineering and research teams globally. The company is actively hiring front-end and back-end development engineers, mobile development engineers and product and operation staff. In addition, the funding will be used to further develop a dynamic and engaging community.

“Real world problems are being solved everyday through the creation and collaboration in the vibrant FlowGPT open ecosystem platform,” said Hurst Lin, General Partner at DCM. “This platform serves as a unique space where top prompt creators converge to creatively build cutting-edge AI apps. We’re happy to support the FlowGPT team in actively seeking to expand their team to harness diverse talents, perspectives, and expertise in shaping the future of AI-driven solutions.”

FlowGPT is firmly committed to empowering creators, understanding that a thriving ecosystem hinges on fostering an attractive, engaging, and dynamic environment for them. To bolster this vision, FlowGPT recently partnered with industry giants such as Google, Leonardo.ai, and Opus Clip for the latest FlowGPT Hackathon Season 3. This initiative attracted more than double the previous number of participants. This level of engagement underscores FlowGPT’s dedication to nurturing a vibrant and innovative community of creators.

In the near future, FlowGPT will also be launching their Flow mobile app. The Flow mobile app is a brand new multimedia experience that differs from the current website. It combines the power of LLMs, agents, text to speech, text to image and text to video, to bring AI to users’ daily lives.

About FlowGPT: 
FlowGPT is the largest open source AI application creator community with millions of monthly active users. The platform is designed to make it easy for anyone to find, share, and use prompts to develop AI applications. With thousands of prompts available, users are sure to find what they’re looking for. The easy-to-use playground helps users to quickly and easily implement the prompts that they find directly into their work.

The FlowGPT community is built on the principles of open source and collaboration, meaning that anyone can contribute to the growing database of prompts. The company’s core mission is that people without a programming background can leverage the platform to write AI applications. Visit https://flowgpt.com/ to learn more.

About Goodwater:
Goodwater’s mission is to empower exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere to change the world for good. We are the world’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on consumer technology, with over 80 venture and growth investments and over 600 seed deals across more than 50 countries. Our consumer-only sector focus enables a systematic global approach, and our proprietary software platform helps us to identify and support the best companies in all corners of the globe.

About DCM:
DCM is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Beijing and Tokyo with over $4.2 billion under management. DCM has invested in more than 400 early-stage technology companies globally and provides hands-on operational guidance and a global network of business and financial resources. DCM has backed industry-leading companies, including 51job, 58.com, Bill.com, BitAuto, Careem (Uber), Dangdang, Fortinet, Freee, FuboTV, Happy Elements, Hims & Hers, Houchebang (ManBang), Gigacloud, Kakao Talk, Kuaishou, Matterport, Musical.ly (TikTok), Quantasing, Sling Media, Sansan, SoFi, TanTan, Tuniu, UCloud, Uxin, Vipshop, YSB, Weekend Health (Weight Watchers) and Wrike. DCM has also led investments in rising startups, such as Assured, Brigit, CADDI, Cherry, DXY, Enechain, EvenUp, Figure Technologies, Immersively, Linc’well, Litmatch, Magic Moment, Maimai, Plenty, Tempo, and YunQuNa. For more information, visit https://www.dcm.com.

SOURCE FlowGPT

Company Also Welcomes Samsung Head of Digital Health to Board of Directors in Funding Round to Accelerate Growth 

BALTIMORE, Feb. 26, 2024 — b.well Connected Health, the company powering platform-enabled healthcare ecosystems, today announced the closure of a $40 million Series C growth round led by Leavitt Equity Partners.  Andrew Clark, Managing Partner at Leavitt Equity Partners joins the b.well board of directors.  Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners and Executive Director of the CARIN Alliance, a bipartisan, multi-sector collaborative dedicated to advancing consumer-directed exchange of health information, has joined the b.well board as an independent director. b.well also welcomed to its board Hon Pak, MD, Head of Digital Health at Samsung, who has played a key role in the companies’ combined efforts to unify consumer health data, solutions, and services for millions of consumers.   

The successful Series C round builds additional momentum around b.well’s mission to solve healthcare’s fragmentation problem. Healthcare organizations use b.well’s scalable, FHIR-based platform to put consumers at the heart of every interaction, derive more value from their technology investments, and surface their services as part of a growing number of digital healthcare ecosystems.

“It’s going to take all kinds of companies coming together to meet the needs of today’s digital consumer and move healthcare toward value,” said Michael Leavitt, founder of Leavitt Equity Partners and former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. “b.well has successfully shown its technology and leadership are best equipped to make that reality and we are incredibly proud to support their mission.”

The new capital raise follows a series of moves that demonstrate b.well is a driving force for more transparent and shoppable consumer healthcare experiences. Last quarter, b.well unveiled its integration with Samsung, which aims to give millions of Galaxy smartphone users control over their longitudinal health records, as well as proactive, personalized health insights, and easy access to care from a growing network of providers, including Walgreens, Northwell Health, Lee Health, ThedaCare and more.

b.well also recently introduced an IAL2-certified, federated identity solution in partnership with CLEAR to enhance security and simplify access to health data for consumers and their families. This move was a leap toward alleviating “portal-itis,” a friction point for consumers to access their information.  “b.well’s unique approach of using open standards with a consumer’s own digital identity credential will enable more consumers frictionless access to their health data across systems,” said Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners and Executive Director, CARIN Alliance. “It’s something we’ve advocated for in the CARIN Alliance and I’m so excited to make this dream a reality with Kristen and her team.” 

“b.well is rearchitecting the backend of healthcare, empowering organizations to build connected ecosystems of care and compete in a market where value is increasingly defined by choice, transparency, and shoppability,” said Kristen Valdes, CEO and Founder of b.well Connected Health. “The support from Leavitt Equity Partners and expertise of Dr. Pak will help us scale personalized, easy-to-access healthcare experiences to more people and their families.”

“With over 50,000 consumer-generated data connections, b.well provides unparalleled connectivity across healthcare providers, payers, labs, and devices — and unmatched personalization to consumers,” said Hon Pak, MD, Head of Digital Health at Samsung. “I’m honored to join b.well’s board of directors and support their efforts to give consumers the kinds of healthcare experiences they need and deserve.”

About b.well Connected Health

b.well Connected Health is on a mission to solve healthcare’s fragmentation problem. b.well’s scalable, FHIR-based platform unifies all healthcare data, solutions, and services in one place — empowering healthcare organizations to offer experiences where consumers can create longitudinal health records, receive proactive health insights, and conveniently shop and access care for themselves and their loved ones. Our white-labeled solution integrates within existing digital systems, enhancing technology investments and ensuring consumers are the heart of every interaction. Learn more at icanbwell.com.

SOURCE b.well Connected Health

• Joint Venture Company to develop Large Language Models (LLM) specifically for telecommunications companies 
• Joint Venture Company to be established within this year
• Initial fine-tuning of models takes place 

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 26, 2024 — SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM, “SKT”), Deutsche Telekom, e& Group, Singtel and SoftBank Corp. today held the inaugural meeting of the Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA) at MWC Barcelona 2024 and announced their plans to establish a joint venture.

The meeting was attended by SK’s Chairman Chey Tae-won, SKT’s CEO Ryu Young-sang, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Tim Höttges and DT’s Board Member for Technology & Innovation, Claudia Nemat, e& Group’s Group CEO Hatem Dowidar, Singtel Group’s CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, and SoftBank’s CISO Tadashi Iida.  

Through the Joint Venture Company, the five companies plan to develop Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically tailored to the needs of telecommunications companies (telcos). The LLMs will be designed to help telcos improve their customer interactions via digital assistants and chatbots.

The goal is to develop multilingual LLMs optimized for languages including Korean, English, German, Arabic and Japanese, with plans for additional languages to be agreed among the founding members.

The joint venture plans to focus on deploying innovative AI applications tailored to the needs of the Global AI Telco Alliance members in their respective markets, enabling them to reach a global customer base of approximately 1.3 billion across 50 countries. Deutsche Telekom boasts about 250 million subscribers across 12 countries, including Germany and the U.S. The e& Group has 169 million subscribers in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, while the Singtel Group has 770 million subscribers in 21 countries, including Australia, India, and Indonesia. 

The Joint Venture Company will be established within this year.  

Compared to general LLMs, telco-specific LLMs are more attuned to the telecommunications domain and better at understanding user intent. By making it easier for telcos to deploy high-quality generative AI models swiftly and efficiently, telco-specific LLMs are expected to help accelerate AI transformation of various telco business and services, including customer service.  

The LLMs are currently being optimized. Telcos’ customer service data is used to fine-tune the model for telco-specific questions. This is because tariff and contract models, information on special hardware such as the router, for example (e.g. How do I do a reset?) are rarely found in the general training data of the large models. But it’s exactly this content that a telco bot needs to know. So that it is able to understand, summarize and respond to these specific concerns. 

This targeted training ensures the LLM understands the unique language and needs of telecom operators, paving the way for enhanced, personalized, and efficient customer experiences.  

“We as telcos need to develop tailored LLM for the telco industry to make telco operations more efficient, which is a low-hanging fruit. Our ultimate goal is to discover new business models by redefining relationships with customers. The Global Telco AI Alliance brings synergy to its members by allowing them to achieve more by working as a team,” said Ryu Young-sang, CEO of SKT.  

“We want our customers to experience the best possible service. AI helps us do that. Already today, more than 100,000 customer service dialogs a month in Germany are handled by Generative AI. By integrating telco-specific large language models, our ‘Frag Magenta’ chatbot becomes even more human-centric: AI personalizes conversations between customers and chatbots. And our joint venture brings Europe and Asia closer together,” said Claudia Nemat, Board Member Deutsche Telekom for Technology and Innovation.

“This is a monumental step for e& and for the Telco industry at large. From streamlining customer support interactions to enabling personalised recommendations, this multi-lingual LLM will revolutionise how businesses engage with customers”, said Dena Almansoori, Group Chief AI and Data Officer, e& group. “In collaboration with our Global AI Telco Alliance partners, we look forward to shaping both the present and future of customer engagement and setting new standards for efficiency and innovation across the telecommunications landscape to better serve our customers and create meaningful impact.”

“This promises to be a game changer not just for us at Singtel but for any telecom company out there looking to lift their customer experience beyond limited automated responses and generic chatbot interactions. This multi-lingual LLM tailored for telcos will greatly expand chatbot capabilities with relevant responses to customers’ technical queries, freeing up service agents to deal with more complex customer issues and we intend to deploy this across the Singtel Group. With leading telcos from three different continents working on this innovative model, this unprecedented effort to scale AI development for the telecom industry would not have been possible had we all decided to go it alone,” said Yuen Kuan Moon, Group Chief Executive Officer, Singtel. 

“Through a powerful alliance with industry leaders, we embark on a mission to revolutionize global communication, elevate service quality, and ignite a new era of technological innovation powered by AI. Together, we have the power to shape the future of telecommunications, empowering communities worldwide with seamless connectivity and boundless opportunities,” said Hideyuki Tsukuda, Executive Vice President & CTO of SoftBank Corp.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom has been leading the growth of the mobile industry since 1984. Now, it is taking customer experience to new heights by extending beyond connectivity. By placing AI at the core of its business, SK Telecom is rapidly transforming into an AI company with a strong global presence. It is focusing on driving innovations in areas of AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service to deliver greater value for industry, society, and life.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit our LinkedIn page www.linkedin.com/company/sk-telecom.

About Deutsche Telekom: https://www.telekom.com/konzernprofil 

About e& 

e& is one of the leading technology groups in the world. Boasting impressive financial figures for 2023, with consolidated net revenue reaching a staggering AED 53.8 billion and consolidated net profit surging to AED 10.3 billion, the Group’s impeccable credit ratings reflect its strong balance sheet and track record of sustained success.  

Founded in Abu Dhabi over 48 years ago, the Group has a rich legacy as the pioneer in telecommunications in the UAE. Today, its footprint spans 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, making it a leading player in the industry.

Innovation is ingrained in e&’s DNA to create an unbreakable bond between communities using cutting-edge digital solutions, smart connectivity and advanced technologies. 

The Group has designed five strong business pillars that address various customer segments: e& UAE, e& international, e& life, e& enterprise and e& capital. Through these pillars, we strive to revolutionise the way people communicate, work and live by providing unparalleled services and exceptional experiences. 

At e&, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of what is possible and delivering measurable results that make a difference in people’s lives.

To learn more about e&, please visit: https://eand.com/

About Singtel

Singtel is Asia’s leading communications technology group, providing a portfolio of services from next-generation communication, 5G and technology services to infotainment to both consumers and businesses. The Group has presence in Asia, Australia and Africa and reaches over 770 million mobile customers in 21 countries. Its infrastructure and technology services for businesses span 21 countries, with more than 428 direct points of presence in 362 cities.

For consumers, Singtel delivers a complete and integrated suite of services, including mobile, broadband and TV. For businesses, Singtel offers a complementary array of workforce mobility solutions, data hosting, cloud, network infrastructure, analytics and cyber security capabilities.

Singtel is dedicated to continuous innovation, harnessing technology to create new and exciting customer experiences and shape a more sustainable, digital future.

About SoftBank

Guided by the SoftBank Group’s corporate philosophy, “Information Revolution – Happiness for everyone,” SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) operates telecommunications and IT businesses in Japan and globally. SoftBank Corp. has 40 million mobile subscribers in Japan, and through its group companies, 61 million smartphone payment (PayPay) users, 85 million online media (Yahoo! JAPAN) users and 96 million communication app (LINE) users (as of February 7, 2024). Building on its strong business foundation and compelling number of customer touchpoints, SoftBank Corp. is expanding into non-telecom fields in line with its “Beyond Carrier” growth strategy while further growing its telecom business. Also, by fully harnessing the power of AI, 5G/6G, IoT, Digital Twin, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions, including High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)-based stratospheric telecommunications, and other advanced technologies, SoftBank Corp. aims to be “a company that provides next-generation social infrastructure essential to the development of a digital society.” To learn more, please visit https://www.softbank.jp/en/

SOURCE SK Telecom

Funding will accelerate mobile software innovation for field marketers
to collect leads at any event and deliver them to sales in seconds

LEHI, Utah, Feb. 26, 2024 — Mobile software company, Mobly, today announced it raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The company’s financing round is led by Peterson Ventures, with participation from VITALIZE Venture Capital, Peak Ventures, Tenzing Capital, Upstream Ventures, and Service Provider Capital, as well as several strategic angel investors. Taylor Jones, principal at Peterson Ventures, will also join Mobly’s board of directors and Caroline Casson, partner at VITALIZE Venture Capital, will be a board observer.

Mobly’s latest funding follows a previous angel investment of $445,000 and will allow the company to further scale go-to-market operations, expand its engineering team, and accelerate the development of new enterprise features and capabilities.

Mobly was founded in 2023 to bring long-awaited mobile software innovation to the sales acceleration market, gaining nearly 40 customers over the past year, including enterprises. The company’s mobile-first SaaS application allows B2B companies to easily capture contacts at any event, enrich the lead information, and automatically sync profile and activity data in CRM or marketing automation platforms (MAP) for immediate sales follow-up.

The typical lead capture and qualification process at events is expensive, manual, and slow. Marketing relies on costly event-exclusive scanners to collect contacts, waits days or weeks to get leads back, and then enters the data manually into a CRM system, MAP, or spreadsheet.

“Events are often the largest line item in B2B marketing budgets, but marketers struggle getting qualified leads to sales teams fast enough to show ROI from their field strategies,” said Taylor Jones, principal at Peterson Ventures. “Mobly makes expensive badge scanners obsolete and eliminates the many tools and manual processes needed to capture and enrich event leads. We’re thrilled to partner with Mobly as they address this underserved market and help companies reduce the time getting a sales lead at an event into CRM from weeks to seconds.”

The Mobly app is event-agnostic, allowing field teams to search contacts by name and company or scan a badge or business card using AI-powered optical character recognition (OCR). Mobly then enriches the lead information with contact and company data, social media profiles, and other metadata for more accurate information on registrants and booth visitors. Native integration with CRM and MAP syncs data in near real-time so sales can respond to a qualified lead in seconds.

“With decades of sales, product, and engineering leadership, the Mobly team has a unique perspective on the problem with B2B lead response and the solution to solve it,” said Caroline Casson, partner at VITALIZE Venture Capital. “Mobile innovation in sales acceleration has been almost non-existent, so the market is ripe for disruption. Mobly fits squarely in our strategy to champion people-first, data-driven big ideas that transform how we work. We believe Mobly will redefine lead capture and qualification for event marketers.”

“Collecting leads and getting good data at events is too hard and time-consuming. Over the past year, we’ve proven that customers are ready to take control of their lead qualification process and event data,” said Zach Barney, co-founder and CEO of Mobly. “Sales and marketing get excited about cutting steps out of qualifying leads, generating faster response times, and driving higher conversions. With this latest round of funding, we’re focused on delivering continued innovation that helps marketers accelerate their speed to lead.”

The Mobly app is currently available for Apple iOS and Google Android users. Be sure to meet the Mobly team at B2B Marketing Exchange in booth #114 to learn more and see a demo. For more information, visit getmobly.com.

About Mobly
Mobly Inc. is a mobile-first software platform to capture qualified leads at in-person events and get them in CRM and marketing automation systems faster. Founded in 2023, Mobly gives field marketing, demand generation, sales, and revenue leaders more accurate records, pipeline visibility, forecasting, and continuity across their operations. Visit getmobly.com to learn more and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

SOURCE Mobly

• Global venture capital firm Lightspeed and additional investors inject $42.5 million into the development and expansion of the company.
• RobCo is a facilitator for plug-and-play robot automation in SMEs today.
• Company is on track to become Europe’s leader in autonomous and intelligent robotics.
• The newly acquired capital will be primarily invested in further expanding distribution channels and advancing product development.

MUNICH, Feb. 26, 2024 — RobCo, an expert in modular, affordable, and connected robotics automation solutions for SMEs, welcomes global venture powerhouse Lightspeed Venture Partners as a new investor in a recent financing round (Series B). The company raised $42.5 million from Lightspeed and additional investors to fuel its development and growth trajectory. Former Apple and Nvidia investor Sequoia Capital, along with Kindred Capital and Promus Ventures, also participated. This round brings the total investment in RobCo to more than $60 million. The newly acquired capital will be primarily invested in further expanding distribution channels and advancing product development.

RobCo was founded in 2020 by three researchers at the Technical University of Munich’s Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Chair and specializes in the development of flexible robotic hardware kits for various applications in SME manufacturing, such as machine loading and unloading or palletizing. The kits enable a modular, intuitive assembly and adaptation of robotics applications based on the unique, vertically integrated hardware and software platform RobCo Studio. Thanks to it, the deployed robots can be configured, implemented, and managed remotely via a digital twin. The low-code approach eliminates the need for complex programming or specialized personnel. Furthermore, the platform is characterized by a modular end-to-end system equipped with all future-proof interfaces. An innovative sensor and software layer ensure the longevity of the hardware.

RobCo’s solutions cater specifically to SMEs, where machine utilization is worthwhile only if they can be quickly and flexibly reprogrammed for changing tasks. RobCo aids companies in entering the realm of automation and transitioning towards Industry 4.0.

“Through a comprehensive RobCo automation solution in the palletizing area, we can actively address the ongoing shortage of skilled workers with technology and at the same time save costs”, explains Martin Matern, plant manager at DE-VAU-GE Gesundkostwerk Deutschland GmbH in Lüneburg.

Sense, Reason, Act – Autonomous and Intelligent Automation Robotics for All Businesses

“The ongoing development of our modular robotic platform for industrial use is crucial for addressing the current and future challenges in economy and society. Today, our robots can already be set up, programmed, and managed with software and AI assistance. The next step is to make industrial robots even more autonomous and intelligent in their operational environment”, says Roman Hölzl, CEO and Co-founder of RobCo. “With our RobCo Autonomy approach, we focus on a deeper implementation of AI in our software so that robots can autonomously sense, reason, and act in their environment, planning and executing actions independently in the near future.”

“The use of robotics in the industrial setting was previously reserved almost exclusively for large corporations with the corresponding financial and human resources”, emphasizes Alex Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed. “High costs and enormous complexity made them partly unaffordable and challenging to manage for small and medium-sized enterprises. RobCo has already made a significant breakthrough in this field with its developments. We recognize both technological and commercial potential for the German and international markets. It is crucial to optimally foster this potential and make robotic automation solutions accessible to all companies.”

“We are only at the beginning of an extensive journey in automation and aim to become a leader in modular robot automation for SMEs in Europe. RobCo is uniquely positioned with its easy-to-implement robots that offer a positive ROI from day one”, adds Roman Hölzl. “We see ourselves as an extension of companies in automating their production and supporting the transformation towards Industry 4.0. The fact that a venture capital powerhouse like Lightspeed supports our next steps with a $42.5 million financing round tells us that we are on the right path – and is an incredible motivational boost for all of us to take our solutions to the next level.”