Permission.io, a pioneer in Web3 advertising technology, is partnering with impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, to revolutionize affiliate marketing with crypto-powered rewards. Through this collaboration, brands can enhance consumer trust and engagement by rewarding users with ASK tokens—a privacy-first incentive model that aligns with GDPR and CCPA compliance.

With over 350,000 users and $45 million in rewards distributed, Permission.io is transforming traditional marketing into an interactive, value-driven experience.

Benefits of the Partnership

1. Enhanced Engagement for Advertisers

• Advertisers can integrate Web3 rewards into their campaigns via impact.com’s 1,000+ technology partners.
• Transforms passive impressions into active user participation, increasing conversions.

2. Consumer-Centric Rewards Model

• Consumers earn ASK tokens for engaging with affiliate content.
• Incentives create a direct stake in the brands they love, fostering long-term loyalty.

3. Real-Time Insights for Brands

• Access real-time engagement data to optimize marketing efforts.
• Strengthen trust-driven relationships with audiences through transparent incentives.

Why This Matters for Marketers

The digital marketing landscape is evolving, and Permission.io’s Web3-powered incentives offer:

• Higher Engagement & Conversions: Crypto rewards drive greater user interaction and advocacy.
• Sustainable Brand Loyalty: Consumers opt in for meaningful, long-term brand relationships.
• Future-Proof Privacy Compliance: Opt-in model ensures alignment with global data regulations.

Industry Impact

"This collaboration unlocks new opportunities for brands to seamlessly integrate Web3-powered incentives into their marketing strategies,” said Charlie Silver, CEO of Permission.io. “By bridging Web2 and Web3, we’re not just redefining affiliate marketing—we’re creating real, measurable value for brands and consumers alike.”

As marketing shifts towards consumer empowerment, this signals the next evolution of affiliate marketing, where brands, advertisers, and consumers all benefit from a fair, transparent, and value-driven economy.

TwelveLabs, a leader in video AI, has announced the release of Pegasus 1.2, a cutting-edge multimodal foundation model that sets new industry standards in long-video understanding. Capable of processing videos up to one hour long with best-in-class accuracy, low latency, and cost efficiency, Pegasus 1.2 is designed for production-grade video processing pipelines that demand precision and scalability.

Breakthrough Capabilities of Pegasus 1.2

1. Unmatched Long-Video Understanding

• Processes videos up to 60 minutes long while maintaining high accuracy.
• Reduces computational costs with intelligent embeddings storage that caches videos for faster, low-cost repeated queries.

2. Advanced AI for Text Generation

• Converts video content into summaries, highlights, titles, and detailed reports with AI-powered language generation.
• Leverages both visual and audio analysis for deeper contextual understanding.

3. Optimized Computational Efficiency

• Uses advanced vision encoding and token reduction methods to balance computational efficiency and precision.
• Seamlessly scales from short video clips to full-length video analysis, making it ideal for real-world business applications.

Industry Impact: Elevating Video Intelligence

"Video understanding represents one of the most complex challenges in artificial intelligence," said Aiden Lee, CTO of TwelveLabs. "Pegasus 1.2 introduces a novel approach to spatio-temporal comprehension, addressing fundamental limitations in existing video language models."

By integrating with TwelveLabs' Marengo model, Pegasus 1.2 delivers human-like video intelligence, transforming how businesses extract insights from video content.

Why Pegasus 1.2 Matters for Businesses

Efficient Content Analysis – Automates video summarization and reporting for media, marketing, and research.
Scalable Performance – Adapts seamlessly to varying video lengths and complexities.
Cost-Effective AI Processing – Optimized architecture challenges the need for massive computational resources.

Pegasus 1.2 represents a milestone in multimodal AI, proving that superior performance can be achieved without exponentially increasing model sizes.

Tealium, the intelligent real-time data streaming platform, has achieved the AWS Automotive Competency, marking another milestone in its expanding portfolio of AWS Competencies across Advertising and Marketing, Retail, Data and Analytics, Travel and Hospitality, and Financial Services.

This recognition highlights Tealium’s expertise in empowering automotive brands with privacy-compliant, real-time customer data solutions that drive business growth and digital transformation.

Driving Innovation in Automotive Data Management

What the AWS Automotive Competency Means for Tealium

Industry Recognition – Tealium is the first Customer Data Platform (CDP) to achieve this competency.
Proven Expertise – Validated by AWS Solution Architects and customer success stories.
Enhanced Cloud Capabilities – Tealium’s CDP integrated with AWS unifies online and offline customer data, optimizing engagement strategies for automakers and dealerships.

"Achieving the AWS Automotive Competency underscores Tealium’s commitment to empowering automotive brands with real-time, privacy-compliant customer data solutions," said Matt Gray, Global VP of Partnerships at Tealium.

Real-World Impact: How Tealium is Transforming Automotive Retail

Morgan Auto Group Case Study

Unified first-party customer data across online and offline touchpoints.
Enabled real-time tracking while ensuring privacy compliance.
Improved buying tool abandonment retargeting and service appointment follow-ups.

"Tealium has been an outstanding partner as we seek to deliver the best customer experience, reduce advertising waste, and generate new revenue streams," said Tom Moore, COO of Morgan Automotive Group.

Why This Matters for Automotive Brands

Personalized Customer Journeys – Deliver hyper-targeted experiences based on real-time data.
Optimized Marketing & Ad Spend – Reduce advertising waste through data-driven engagement.
Competitive Advantage – Enhance operational efficiency with unified first-party data strategies.

Appier, a leading AI-powered SaaS provider in Advertising Technology (AdTech) and Marketing Technology (MarTech), has announced the acquisition of AdCreative.ai, a Paris-based leader in Generative AI-driven creative optimization, for $38.7 million. This marks Appier’s fifth major acquisition since 2018, reinforcing its global expansion and AI product innovation strategy.

Driving the Future of AI in Digital Advertising

Why This Acquisition Matters

Accelerates Generative AI Innovation – Expands AI-driven creative solutions for digital advertising.
Strengthens Global Market Reach – Leverages Appier’s dominance in APAC and AdCreative.ai’s European foothold.
Enhances ROI-Driven Marketing – Optimizes creative generation and performance tracking for eCommerce, gaming, and consumer brands.

"With Appier’s leadership in APAC and rapid US expansion, combined with AdCreative.ai’s European market position, this move completes our AI map and drives the growth of our ROI-driven AI marketing solutions worldwide," said Chih-Han Yu, CEO and Co-founder of Appier.

How Appier & AdCreative.ai Are Reshaping AI Advertising

First-Mover Advantage – Solidifies Appier’s position as a leader in AI-driven marketing automation.
Optimized Ad Lifecycle – From creative generation to performance analysis, businesses gain better cost efficiencies.
New Growth Opportunities – Unlocks AI-powered ad personalization across dynamic sectors like eCommerce, gaming, and CPG.

"Joining forces with Appier is a thrilling milestone for AdCreative.ai," said Alexandre Leciel, CEO of AdCreative.ai. "Their expertise in AI-powered advertising aligns perfectly with our mission to redefine creative efficiency and performance."

Strategic Acquisitions Powering Appier’s AI Growth

QGraph (2018, India) – AI-powered user engagement.
Emotion Intelligence (2019, Japan) – AI for sentiment analysis.
BotBonnie (2021, Taiwan) – Conversational AI for marketing.
Woopra (2022, USA) – AI-powered customer analytics.
AdCreative.ai (2025, France) – Generative AI for ad creative optimization.

Each acquisition has strengthened Appier’s full-funnel AI capabilities, ensuring higher efficiency and marketing automation for brands worldwide.

Total Expert, the leading customer engagement software provider for financial services, has announced Pete Karns as its new Chief Product Officer (CPO). This strategic appointment reinforces the company’s commitment to delivering advanced, purpose-built solutions for modern financial institutions in 2025 and beyond.

Elevating Customer Engagement with AI & Predictive Intelligence

Investment in Agentic AI & Predictive Intelligence – Total Expert is making major investments in AI-driven customer engagement solutions.
World-Class Leadership – Pete Karns brings 25+ years of experience in application software, corporate strategy, and product growth.
Focus on Customer Success – Strengthening Total Expert’s product roadmap with quality-driven, purpose-built solutions.

"We are making incredible investments into our product suite, and it’s critical to bring an experienced leader like Pete as we elevate our solutions,” said Joe Welu, Founder & CEO of Total Expert. "His expertise will be invaluable in driving customer success and innovation in financial services."

Pete Karns: A Proven Leader in Product & Strategy

25+ Years of Industry Experience – Led product growth and corporate strategy at Bonterra and IBM.
Expert in Driving Business Growth – Built high-performing teams and launched successful global product portfolios.
Multi-Disciplinary Leadership – Background spans sales, marketing, M&A, corporate strategy, quality assurance, and more.

"Total Expert’s capabilities and industry leadership are well documented. My focus is to bring our clients an elegant and durable combination of capabilities that enable them to create customers for life," said Pete Karns.

The Future of Total Expert: Innovation & Growth

Enhancing Financial Services Tech – Strengthening AI-driven customer engagement platforms.
Expanding Product Offerings – Delivering smarter, predictive solutions to help financial institutions grow.
Customer-Centric Roadmap – Ensuring quality, innovation, and long-term success for clients.

With Karns at the helm of product strategy, Total Expert is poised to redefine customer engagement in financial services through cutting-edge AI and predictive intelligence solutions.

Suger.io, the API-first platform that empowers high-growth software companies to seamlessly transact on cloud marketplaces, has successfully closed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Threshold Ventures, with participation from Craft Ventures, Intel Capital, and Y Combinator.

Cloud Marketplaces: The Fastest-Growing B2B Sales Channel

Cloud marketplaces are transforming B2B software sales, offering:
Larger deal sizes
Faster sales cycles
Reduced risk of late payments

By 2028, annual cloud marketplace transactions are expected to exceed $100 billion. However, companies face challenges in managing multiple marketplace integrations and scaling workflow automation effectively.

"We found enterprise teams relying on manual workarounds, unmanaged automations, and makeshift tools," said Jon Yoo, Co-Founder & CEO of Suger.io. "Suger automates the entire quote-to-cash process, freeing go-to-market teams from engineering and operational bottlenecks."

Suger.io: AI-Powered Automation for Cloud Marketplace Sales

Automates quote-to-cash workflows
Streamlines marketplace transactions for B2B SaaS companies
Boosts sales efficiency by eliminating manual work

"Suger is solving one of the most pressing challenges for B2B software companies today," said Lisa Xu, Partner at Threshold Ventures. "With deep expertise in this space, the Suger team is building a category-defining company."

Suger’s Rapid Growth & Market Impact

4x ARR growth in 2024
200+ customers, including Snowflake, Intel, Notion, and ContentSquare
3x marketplace volumes & 140%+ increase in average contract value
8-figure deals regularly transacted through its platform

The Future of Cloud Marketplace Sales

Suger.io is shaping a future where B2B software transactions operate with the ease of e-commerce. With this new funding, the company will expand R&D efforts to create a unified, cloud-first procurement ecosystem.

Fivetran, the global leader in data movement, has announced the appointment of Suresh Seshadri as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Anand Mehta as Chief People Officer (CPO), and Simon Quinton as General Manager for EMEA. These strategic hires reinforce Fivetran’s commitment to scaling operations, fostering a high-performing company culture, and expanding its global reach.

"Strengthening our leadership team is key to accelerating innovation and delivering exceptional value to our customers," said George Fraser, CEO of Fivetran. "These accomplished leaders bring unique expertise that will be pivotal in driving our next phase of growth and success."

Meet the New Leaders Driving Fivetran’s Next Growth Phase

Suresh Seshadri, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

 Former CFO at OpenGov, where he led financial strategy and expansion
 Scaled Freshworks’ financial foundation ahead of its public offering
 Played a key role in AppDynamics’ $3.7B acquisition by Cisco
 Finance leadership roles at VMware and Microsoft

Anand Mehta, Chief People Officer (CPO)

 Led HR through rapid scaling at ID.me and Compass
 Expanded workforce from 1,700 to 4,000+ at Compass in a year
 Former Operating Committee member at Bridgewater Associates
 Consulting and analytics experience at Bain & Company

Simon Quinton, General Manager, EMEA

 20+ years in enterprise software, including leadership roles at Salesforce, Infor, and SAP
 Former GM for Tableau EMEA North at Salesforce
 Led major accounts at Infor and SAP, driving innovation across key industries

Fivetran’s Continued Global Expansion

With these leadership additions, Fivetran is strengthening its position as the go-to platform for modern data movement. These executives bring proven expertise in finance, operations, HR, and regional expansion, positioning the company for its next stage of growth, innovation, and global impact.

Zocks, a privacy-first AI platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Carson Group, a leading financial services firm supporting a nationwide network of advisors. This collaboration empowers Carson’s advisors with AI-driven insights, automated workflows, and enhanced client engagement.

"We're thrilled to partner with Carson Group, a true innovator in the wealth management space," said Mark Gilbert, CEO & Co-founder of Zocks. "The rapid adoption by 250 advisors in just eight weeks highlights the platform’s immediate value and Carson’s commitment to tech-driven client relationships."

How Zocks is Revolutionizing Wealth Management

AI-Powered Client Profiles – Automatically updates client information from conversations
Meeting Notes & Task Automation – Saves 45 minutes per meeting by capturing critical insights
Email Assistance – Streamlines responses to client inquiries
CRM Integration – Syncs seamlessly with Salesforce for real-time data access
Firm-Wide Insights – Surfaces key trends across advisors

"The 97% weekly active usage rate among our advisors speaks volumes," said Dani Fava, Chief Strategy Officer, Carson Group. "This isn't just about efficiency—it’s about unlocking deeper insights to drive better client outcomes."

A New Era for Wealth Management AI

With over 280 Carson Group users actively leveraging Zocks, this partnership is set to redefine client intelligence in wealth management, setting new standards for data privacy, security, and advisor efficiency.